Individual communications

The Human Rights Committee can receive and consider individual communications, also known as complaints, from or on behalf of a person or group of persons claiming to be victims of a violation of the Covenant by a State party (set out in the Optional Protocol to CCPR).

For the Committee to have the competence to receive individual complaints, the State party concerned must have recognized the Committee’s competence by ratifying the Optional Protocol. You can check this here.

The following resources provide more information on submitting complaints:

Note by the Human Rights Committee on the procedure for follow-up on Views

Individual complaints form and guidance note

Fact Sheet on Individual Complaint Procedures under the United Nations Human Rights Treaties

Guidance for third party submissions (communications on behalf of others, amicus curiae briefs)

Guidance for individual communications received under the Optional Protocol

Guidelines on making oral comments concerning communications

Guidelines on measures of reparation

General information about the complaints procedures for all treaty bodies

General information about individual complaints

The Committee publishes an anonymized list of all complaints that have been received on an annual basis. This list is not comprehensive.

• Browse complaints made to the Human Rights Committee in the jurisprudence database
• Table of registered cases 2023 (pdf)
• Table of registered cases 2022 (pdf)
• Table of registered cases 2021 (pdf)
• Table of registered cases from 2017 until 2020 (pdf)

Pending complaints

The Committee publishes anonymized lists of complaints which it has not examined yet

• Pending cases by year of registration (up to 31 December 2023)
• Pending cases by State party (up to 31 December 2023)

Adjudicated complaints (forthcoming)

The Committee publishes the lists of complaints it has examined and the outcome of the decisions

• List of cases examined in 2022
• List of cases examined in 2021
• List of cases examined in 2020
• List of cases examined in 2019

When a complaint is first submitted, the Committee may sometimes request the State party concerned to take what are called ‘interim measures’ to avoid irreparable damage to the alleged victim while the complaint is being considered. These measures are designed to preserve the respective rights of the parties until the Committee takes a decision on a complaint.

Complaints under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant that contain the necessary prima facie elements are referred to the Committee’s Special Rapporteur on New Communications and Interim Measures, who decides whether the case should be registered and transmitted to the State party for observations. Given the large number of complaints submitted to the Committee, there may be a delay of several years between the initial submission and the Committee’s final decision.

Under the Optional Protocol, there is no time limit to submit complaints to the Committee. However, in order to prevent possible abuse in this respect, the Committee introduced a rule in its rules of procedure (current Rule 96 (c)) regarding delays in submission. According to it, a delay in submission will not automatically constitute an abuse of the right of submission. However, there might be abuse when the complaint is submitted after five years from the exhaustion of domestic remedies or, where applicable, after three years from the conclusion of another procedure of international investigation or settlement, unless there are reasons justifying the delay taking into account all the circumstances of the case.

The Human Rights Committee cannot examine a complaint if the same matter is at the same time being examined by another mechanism of international investigation or settlement. Some States parties have made reservations to exclude the competence of the Committee not only to cases being examined but also to cases that have been examined and decided by another international mechanism. The Committee considers that the Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure (previously known as 1503 procedure) and complaints submitted to special rapporteurs or working groups of the Human Rights Council do not constitute such a mechanism. Accordingly, a complaint to the Human Rights Committee will not be declared inadmissible if it has been submitted to these mechanisms.

As to what constitutes “the same matter”, the Committee understands it as relating to the same author, the same facts and the same substantive rights. Facts that have been submitted to another international mechanism can be brought before the Committee if the Covenant provides for a broader protection. Furthermore, complaints dismissed by other international mechanisms on procedural grounds are not considered to have been substantively examined; the same facts may therefore be brought before the Committee.

The Human Rights Committee has developed some exceptions to the rule that it cannot examine facts occurred before the entry into force of the Optional Protocol for the State concerned. Thus, it is usually a sufficient ground for the Committee to examine the complaint if, after the date of entry into force of the Optional Protocol, there has been a court decision or some other State act validating the facts preceding that date which constitute the purpose of the complaint.

How to submit a complaint

Complaints should be submitted using the online submission form.

Learn more: Treaty bodies communications page