A/HRC/17/36 I. Introduction 1. The Human Rights Council decided, in its resolution 11/1, to establish an openended working group to explore the possibility of elaborating an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to provide a communications procedure complementary to the reporting procedure under the Convention. Pursuant to that resolution, the Working Group met from 16 to 18 December 2009 and submitted its report (A/HRC/13/43) to the Council at its thirteenth session. 2. In its resolution 13/3, the Human Rights Council decided to extend the mandate of the Open-ended Working Group until its seventeenth session. It also decided to mandate the Working Group to elaborate an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to provide a communications procedure. In this regard, the Council requested the Chairperson of the Working Group to prepare a proposal for a draft optional protocol to be used as a basis for the negotiations, taking into account the views expressed and inputs provided during the first session of the Working Group and giving due regard to the views of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and, where appropriate, the views of relevant United Nations special procedures and other experts. 3. The second session of the Working Group was held in two parts: from 6 to 10 December 2010, and from 10 to 16 February 2011.1 4. The session was opened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on 6 December 2010. The High Commissioner expressed her interest and that of her Office in the mandate of the Working Group. She firmly believed that litigation and the examination of communications from individuals at the regional and international levels could make a vital contribution to the understanding of the substantive content of international norms and lead to real change not only for the individuals directly concerned but for all those protected by the rights guaranteed in the treaties. She was convinced that regional and international remedies also provided a strong incentive for strengthening national protection mechanisms. The future optional protocol would serve the same purpose, thus improving access to remedies and relief for victims. 5. The High Commissioner informed the Working Group that, in support for its mandate and upon the initiative of the Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, her Office had organized, in June 2010, an expert consultation, where most of the relevant issues regarding the optional protocol were discussed. For two days, experts on litigation on children issues shared their experience and expressed their views with regard to the possible content of the future optional protocol. While acknowledging the merits of existing communication procedures and their valuable contribution to the development of a rich body of international jurisprudence, experts were generally in favour of an optional protocol that was innovative, suited to the needs of children and that would take into account the main principles enshrined in the Convention. They considered, inter alia, that the communications procedure should be transparent and that measures should be taken to ensure wide dissemination among potential users. Consistent with the campaign for their universal ratification, the optional protocol should apply to the rights protected under the Convention and the two optional protocols thereto. Experts were generally in favour of including provisions allowing the Committee to examine both individual and collective communications, as well as of including a provision by which no reservation to the optional protocol would be allowed. They believed that the Committee should have the competence 1 The Working Group was unable to meet on the morning of 14 February 2011 owing to lack of interpretation services, a situation regarding which the Chairperson expressed concern. 3