A/HRC/WG.7/2/2 13. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child mandates the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to receive communications “from any person, group or non-governmental organization recognized by the Organization of African Unity, by a Member State, or the United Nations relating to any matter covered by this Charter” (art. 44 (1)). The Committee’s guidelines for the consideration of communications provided for in article 44 state: 1. Communications may be presented by individuals, including the victimized child and/or his parents or legal representatives, witnesses, a group of individuals or non-governmental organizations recognized by the African Union, by a Member State or by any other institution of the United Nations system. 2. The Author of the communication shall specify either to have been a victim of violations of the rights spelt out in the Charter, or to act on behalf of a victim or of other eligible parties. 3. A Communication may be presented on behalf of a victim without his/her agreement on condition that the author is able to prove that his/her action is taken in the supreme interest of the child. The victimized child who is able to express his/her opinions shall be informed of the communications presented on his/her behalf ... . 14. International complaints procedures established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and under the Constitution of the International Labour Organization (ILO) also allow for collective communications without identification of victims of violations. Individuals, groups of individuals and nongovernmental organizations can submit a complaint to the UNESCO Committee on Conventions and Recommendations if they are direct victims or if they have a sufficient connection to the claimed violations. The procedure is confidential. It is the Committee’s responsibility to decide whether the affair in question is an individual and specific “case” concerning violation of human rights or a question of “massive, systematic or flagrant violations of human rights which result either from a policy contrary to human rights applied de jure or de facto by a State or from an accumulation of individual cases forming a consistent pattern”. The ILO complaint procedure is regulated by articles 26 to 34 of the ILO Constitution, under which a complaint alleging that a member State is not “securing the effective observance” of a convention to which it is a party can be filed by another member State, party to the same convention; any delegate to the ILO Conference; or by the ILO Governing Body. When a complaint is received, the Governing Body can appoint a commission of inquiry, composed of three independent members, to carry out an examination and formulate any recommendations. Article 4 Admissibility 15. Article 4 is derived from article 2 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The only distinctive feature in the text is a reference to a child’s well-being and development in subparagraph (d). 16. Before considering the merits of a communication, the Committee needs to determine whether it meets certain criteria applying to all communications and is therefore “admissible”. 17. The existing procedures provide a number of standard reasons for rejecting communications (declaring them “inadmissible”). The following provisions relate to admissibility: articles 3 and 5 of the first Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; articles 3 and 4 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the 14 GE.10-15781