5.2 The United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 5.2.1 Substantive protections The ICCPR articles most relevant to bring claims to redress violence against women include: Article Article Article Article Article Article Article Article 3 – Equality between men and women 6 – Right to Life 7 – Prohibition on torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment 8 – Prohibition on slavery 9 – Right to liberty 10 – Right to human dignity 14 – Equality before courts and tribunals 26 – Non-discrimination and equality before the law The treaty established a Human Rights Committee (HRC) to monitor the implementation of the treaty and to consider complaints of violations of treaty rights by the State. Under Optional Protocol I to the treaty, State Parties may accept the competence of the HRC to hear individual complaints. 5.2.2 Admissibility and Procedure There are no admissibility requirements other than those mentioned in section 3. The HRC may consider individuals complaints 159, called “communications”, against States Parties to the Optional Protocol I to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The communication must be submitted by the alleged victim or by someone assigned by the victim to act on his/her behalf.160 Complaints are submitted in written form to the Committee, registered by the Secretariat and sent to the State Party for its response. If the State Party contests the admissibility of the communication the Committee may decide to consider admissibility separately to the merits (with each party given the opportunity to make written submissions), but does not always do so. Once parties have provided their written submissions, the communications are examined by the Committee on the basis of the documents that have been submitted in closed session, without an oral hearing. 5.2.3 The General Comments and Decisions of the Human Rights Committee The HRC has adopted general comments, issued reports and/or otherwise made important findings that impact positively the possibilities of addressing women’s claims of violation of treaty rights, including sexual violence. These range from questions of admissibility to definitions of important concepts of equality and non-discrimination, to clarification on nature and extent of violation and the extent of State obligation to protect and promote civil and political rights. i) Prohibition of discrimination In General Comment No.18, the HRC set out a definition of discrimination to clarify Article 26 on ‘non-discrimination and equality.’ 161 The definition provides, “the Committee 159 The schematic representation of how the individual complaints procedure works is available at: http://www.claiminghumanrights.org/ccpr_schematic.html. 160 161 Information available at: http://www.claiminghumanrights.org/ccpr_individual_communications.html. HRC General Comment No. 18, Non-Discrimination (1989), UN Doc. HRC/GEN/1/Rev, ¶ 1. 46 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES | REDRESS