Part I The human rights of women and girls Article 13: Economic and social life Women have equal rights to family benefits, financial credit and participation in recreational activities. Article 14: Rural women Rural women have the right to adequate living conditions, participation in development planning and access to health care and education. Article 15: Equality before the law Women and men are equal before the law. Women have the legal right to enter contracts, own property and choose their place of residence. Article 16: Marriage and family Women have equal rights with men in matters related to marriage and family relations. Articles 17–24: Role of the CEDAW Committee Includes information on the reporting requirements for States parties. Articles 25–30: Administration of CEDAW Includes information on the procedure for ratification and date of entry into force. 2.3. THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN An optional protocol to a human rights treaty is a treaty in its own right. It is open to all States that are party to the main treaty. A number of the core human rights treaties have optional protocols. They may provide additional standards in relation to the human rights issues addressed by the different treaties. Alternatively, an optional protocol may provide an avenue for individual complaints to be brought or inquiries to be made with regard to possible violations of the rights protected in the main treaty. In 1999, the General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to CEDAW44 and called on all States parties to CEDAW to become party to the new instrument as soon as possible. By ratifying the Optional Protocol, a State party recognizes the competence of the CEDAW Committee – the treaty body responsible for monitoring compliance of States parties with their obligations under CEDAW (discussed in further detail in Chapter 3) – to receive and consider complaints from individuals or groups within that State’s jurisdiction. The Optional Protocol sets out two procedures for dealing with potential violations of women’s human rights. The first is a communications (or complaints) procedure that allows individual women, or groups of women, to submit claims of violations of rights protected under CEDAW for consideration by the CEDAW Committee. Certain criteria need to be met before complaints can be considered, including a requirement that domestic remedies have been exhausted. The second is an inquiry procedure that enables the CEDAW Committee to initiate inquiries into situations of grave or systematic violations of women’s rights. The inquiry procedure allows the CEDAW Committee to investigate widespread violations of human rights that may not be adequately addressed through the individual complaints procedure. 44 More information about the Optional Protocol is available at www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CEDAW/Pages/CEDAWIndex.aspx. See also Australian Human Rights Commission, Mechanisms for advancing women’s human rights: A guide to using the Optional Protocol to CEDAW and other international complaint mechanisms, 2011; and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW website, available at http://opcedaw.wordpress.com/about/. Chapter 2: The international legal framework around women’s and girls’ human rights | 17