PART III 12 INTERNATIONAL REFERRALS When it receives an admissible complaint, the Human Rights Committee forwards the information in the complaint to the government in question, which has six months to provide the Committee with written explanations clarifying the matter and the remedy that has been taken, if any. The Committee will then hold a closed meeting to consider the complaint and the response and forward its views to the state and the individual concerned, as well as publicize them. In the event that it considers that a human rights violation has occurred, the Committee requires the government concerned to report back within 90 days about what action has been taken to remedy the violation. There is no further enforcement power. The UN Committee against Torture The Committee against Torture can consider a “communication” from an individual in a state that has ratified the Convention against Torture and made the declaration under Article 22 recognizing the Committee’s jurisdiction to hear communications from, or on behalf of, individuals. The prerequisites for use of this procedure and the working methods of the Committee parallel those of the Human Rights Committee. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Under the terms of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Committee can receive and consider complaints from individuals or groups of individuals against any State Party that has made the declaration under Article 14, recognizing the Committee’s jurisdiction to hear individual complaints. Any state accepting the procedure under Article 14 should establish or designate a domestic body to consider individual complaints. If this body does not provide a satisfactory remedy within six months, then the Committee may consider the complaint. In such cases, the Committee will forward the information to the State Party without revealing the names of individuals without their consent, and the state must reply within three months. The Committee then provides its recommendation to the state and to the complainant. The prerequisites for filing a communication with the Committee are similar to those for the other UN Committees. Although the human rights obligations in each of the three treaties are legally binding on States Parties, the committee mechanisms function in a manner that is unlikely to bring short-term relief to individual complainants. 104