A/HRC/WG.7/2/2 paragraph 5 is added to ensure that, in such cases, the Committee applies the best interest principle. This reflects the principle identified by the Committee in article 3 (1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Another option could be to include this provision in the rules of procedure, which the Committee will develop regarding the communications procedure before the Protocol comes into use. 8. Extending the communications procedure to cover the provisions in the two existing Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child is consistent with the only existing parallel: the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. It extends the competence of the Human Rights Committee to cover communications concerning its provisions (art. 5), unless States make a contrary statement on ratification or accession (article 5 of the second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: With respect to the States parties to the first Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted on 16 December 1966, the competence of the Human Rights Committee to receive and consider communications from individuals subject to its jurisdiction shall extend to the provisions of the present Protocol, unless the State party concerned has made a statement to the contrary at the moment of ratification or accession). Article 3 Collective communications 9. Experts at the first session of the Working Group encouraged States to consider including provisions allowing “collective communications”, defined in this context as communications alleging grave or systematic violations of any of the rights set forth in the Convention and/or the Optional Protocols thereto, without the identification of individual victims. This was strongly advocated by experts consulted during the preparation of the present draft, in particular during the expert consultations in Geneva in June 2010. 10. The issue of collective communications is not totally new within the framework of the United Nations standard setting; it was already discussed during the negotiations on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 11. In the present draft, it is suggested that the Committee should be able to consider collective communications from national human rights institutions or ombudsman institutions and non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and from, with particular competence in the matters covered by the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto, leaving it to the Committee to determine whether the body should be approved for this purpose. Further criteria for approval could be defined in the Committee’s rules of procedure. 12. Regional human rights mechanisms in Europe and Africa allow for the submission of collective complaints. In the Council of Europe, the Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter providing for a system of collective complaints was opened for signature in 1995 and came into force in 1998. It enables the European Committee of Social Rights to consider communications made by certain organizations approved for the purpose, alleging unsatisfactory application of the Charter. A State can also declare that it recognizes the right of national non-governmental organizations within its jurisdiction and that have particular competence in the matters governed by the Charter to lodge complaints against it. GE.10-15781 13