In accordance with article 31, a State Party may at the time of ratification of this Convention or at any time afterwards declare that it recognizes the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications from or on behalf of individuals subject to its jurisdiction claiming to have suffered a violation of a Convention’s provision.
To submit a petition to the CED, the following guidelines and application form have been released by the Committee: Model Form for Submission to CED.
The CED has other important tasks and powers:
- if it receives reliable information indicating that a State Party is seriously violating the provisions of this Convention, it may, after consultation with the State Party concerned, request one or more of its members to undertake a visit and report back to it without delay (Art. 33).
- if the Committee receives information which appears to it to contain well-founded indications that enforced disappearance is being practiced on a widespread or systematic basis in the territory under the jurisdiction of a State Party, it may, after seeking from the State Party concerned all relevant information on the situation, urgently bring the matter to the attention of the General Assembly of the United Nations (Art. 34).
- may receive and consider urgent requests, submitted by the relatives of the disappeared person or their legal representatives, their counsel or any person authorized by them, as well as any other person having a legitimate interest, that a disappeared person should be sought and found (Art. 30 of the Convention). In such a case, the Committee may transmit recommendations to the State Party concerned, including interim measures, and it shall continue its efforts to work in cooperation with that State Party for as long as the fate of the person sought remains unresolved.