Inquiry procedure
This submissions was delivered by the NGO Coalition to the Open Ended Working Group for an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 8 February 2006.
The NGO Coalition considers that the Optional Protocol should include the so called “inquiry procedure”, which has been already incorporated under the CAT and the CEDAW-OP.
This procedure which is very respectful of the sovereignty of the State, as it has been established under other UN Human rights treaties, seek and require the full cooperation of the State party.
Under the CAT and CEDAW-OP, this procedure enable the respective Committees to initiate a confidential investigation when it has received reliable information indicating grave or systematic violations by a state party of rights set forth in the Convention.
After the confidential investigation is undertaken, if it is deemed necessary, with the consent of the state party, the Committee may visit the territory of the state concerned. Any findings, recommendations or comments agreed by the Committee under this mechanism are transmitted to the state party, which has the right to respond.
The NGO Coalition considers that this mechanism would constructively complement the existing reporting mechanism and a future complaints mechanism. In general, inquiry mechanisms allow the supervisory bodies to initiate a dialogue with the State party before the next report is due to be submitted. This dialogue would enable States to undertake measures to improve situations that might appear to be against the Covenant before the State report is examined.
In addition, this procedure offers a means of addressing situations in which individual communications do not adequately reflect the gravity or systematic nature of violations of Covenant provisions. This type of mechanism also addresses the situations in which individuals or groups are unable to utilise the communications mechanism because of practical constraints.
As well as conducting investigations under a stand-alone inquiry procedure to analyse situations of grave or systematic violations, the Committee should also be empowered to conduct inquiries within the framework of the procedural operation of an individual communications procedure. In this instance, the ability to conduct an inquiry (including field visits) should be available in relation to all individual communications and used whenever the Committee deems it appropriate or useful for a full and proper investigation of the communication.
