The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure which was adopted at the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations by resolution 66/138 of 19 December 2011, will be open for signature at a signing ceremony to be held in Geneva, Switzerland on 28 February 2012 and thereafter at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In accordance with its article 18 (1), the Protocol shall be open for signature by any State that has signed, ratified or acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child or either of the two Optional Protocols thereto on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

Certified true copies of the Protocol, of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, are being printed and will be transmitted to all States as soon as possible.

The Secretary-General takes this opportunity to recall that, under established international practice, only Heads of State, Heads of Government or Ministers for Foreign Affairs are empowered, by virtue of their functions, to sign treaties on behalf of States without having to produce full powers to that effect. Other representatives wishing to sign the Protocol must be in possession of appropriate full powers emanating from one of these authorities.

The Secretary-General would be obliged if States wishing to sign the Protocol could, as necessary, provide the required full powers in advance to the Treaty Section, Office of Legal Affairs.