The Optional Protocols
The UN member states adopted an Optional Protocol
to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. A protocol
is an instrument that makes additional provisions to an existing treaty.
The Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
provides for a mechanism for complaints about human rights abuses to be
heard by the Human Rights Committee. It is Optional because only those
states that ratify the Protocol can be bound by it. However, it has considerable
moral force on the others.
