Chapter 2 • The Major Universal Human Rights Instruments and the Mechanisms for Their Implementation maximum of two weeks annually (art. 20), whilst the meeting times of other treaty bodies have not been limited by the respective treaties. In its General Recommendation No. 22, the Committee thus proposed that the States parties amend article 20 “so as to allow it to meet annually for such duration as is necessary for the effective performance of its functions under the Convention”;70 v individual communications: Since the entry into force on 22 December 2000 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Committee has been competent to consider petitions from individual women or groups of women having exhausted all their domestic remedies. Petitions can also be submitted on behalf of individuals or groups of individuals, with their consent, unless it can be shown why consent was not received (art. 2). The Optional Protocol also entitles the Committee to conduct confidential enquiries into grave or systematic violations of the Convention (art. 8). The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women has provided a legal framework that has stimulated work in favour of increased equality between women and men in many parts of the world. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women provides a comprehensive legal framework for the elimination of discrimination against women in their enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in both the public and the private fields. At the international level the Convention is implemented through (1) a reporting procedure and (2) a system of individual communications. 3. Other Instruments Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly This section will highlight a few of the most relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly in the field of human rights, many of which will be dealt with specifically in some detail in other chapters of this Manual. As explained in Chapter 1, resolutions adopted by the General Assembly do not, as such, constitute legally binding obligations, but, depending on the circumstances of their adoption, they can provide useful evidence of customary international law.71 As a minimum, resolutions adopted by the General Assembly carry strong moral and political force and can be regarded as setting forth principles broadly accepted within the international community.72 Consequently, they can also provide important guidance to the domestic legal 70 See General Recommendation No. 22 (Amending article 20), United Nations Compilation of General Comments, pp. 232-233. 71 See further supra, Chapter 1, section 2.4.2. 72 See Human Rights: A Basic Handbook for UN Staff, United Nations, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights/United Nations Staff College Project, p. 5. Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 61