Two optional protocols were adopted on 25 May 2000.

A third optional protocol relating to communication of complaints was adopted in December 2011 and opened for signature on 28 February 2012.

With the optional protocol, the women can now take their claims to a United Nations body for review.

While roughly 160 countries belong to the consular convention," she said, "less than 30 percent of those countries belong to the optional protocol.

There are two optional protocols included in the Convention; one pertaining specifically to the restriction on using children as soldiers.

Last week, just days after accepting the court's judgment, the administration revealed its hand: it said it had withdrawn from the optional protocol.

For a long time, however, the necessary support for such an optional protocol was not forthcoming.

This instead has, in common with several other treaties, an optional protocol prohibiting capital punishment and promoting its wider abolition.

A second point on the optional protocol.

The UN negotiations on an optional protocol establishing 18 as the minimum age have been dragging on for years.