Complaints Procedure

The third optional protocol on the rights of individual petition was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 19 December 2011 and was ratified by Germany as the third country world-wide on 20 November 2012. This Protocol contains an individual complaint procedure that permits children and adolescents to bring complaints about violations of their rights as set out in the CRC or the optional protocols to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
In addition, the Optional Protocol refers to and inquiry procedure which permits a contracting state to initiate the procedure against another state in the case of infringements of the Convention or both of the other optional protocols.
The Protocol entered into force on 14 April 2014 following the tenth ratification.