The Committee has provided helpful guidance on the issues that must be reflected in a communication for it to be registered (CRPD/C/5/3/Rev.1). These are produced in the box below:
All ten points are important. However, it is relevant to draw attention to some specific issues:
Any individual under the jurisdiction of a State party that has accepted the competence of the Committee can submit a communication to the Committee's secretariat. In addition, groups of individuals can also submit communications. In other words, two or more individuals can join together and send a communication to the Committee claiming a breach of their rights.
Furthermore, a communication can be brought on behalf of an individual or group. That means, for example, a family member, an NGO or a public interest law centre or other entity could bring a communication on behalf of someone. The Committee's rules of procedure simply specify that communications may be submitted on behalf of an individual or a group of individuals (rule 69). As is clear from the information, an author submitting a communication on behalf of alleged victim(s) must provide evidence of the consent of the victim(s) (such as a power of attorney), or reasons that justify submitting the communication without such consent.
The defendant State must have accepted the competence of the Committee by ratifying the Optional Protocol.
The communication must include an allegation of a violation of any provision in the Convention. It is important to note that the communication can concern any “provision”. The authors should make sure that they clarify which provisions have allegedly been breached and how that alleged breach has affected them.
The communications procedure is a confidential written procedure; there are no oral hearings. However, the Optional Protocol does not rule out oral hearings and the Committee could receive oral submissions, although this is unlikely.