What is an optional protocol?

An optional protocol is a treaty in its own right and is linked to a parent or main human rights treaty. It can either add to or improve its parent treaty. Only countries that have agreed to a parent treaty can choose to agree to its optional protocol.

There are only two kinds of optional protocols in the United Nations Human Rights Treaty System. Those that cover:

• matters that have not been included or covered in the original parent treaty; and

• rules that may affect the way a parent treaty works or is carried out. For example, how you make a complaint to the United Nations Committee looking after the parent treaty.

The CRPD-OP offers a way for disabled people to make complaints to the UN Disability Committee and sets out the way they examine complaints. Most optional protocols offer ways individuals and groups of people may make a complaint to the correct United Nations Committee. Such protocols set out the steps to take to make a formal complaint. A complaint can also be made when a country is thought to have abused the human rights set out in a treaty it has agreed to.