circumstances to present on his behalf. He goes on to say that he did show his scars to the Court, including the prosecution, and therefore a medical report is an unnecessary requirement. Issues and Proceedings before the Committee 6.1 Before considering any claims contained in a communication, the Committee against Torture must decide whether or not it is admissible under article 22 of the Convention. In this respect the Committee has ascertained, as it is required to do under article 22, paragraph 5 (a) of the Convention, that the same matter has not been and is not being examined under another procedure of international investigation or settlement. The Committee also notes that the State party has not contested the admissibility of the communication. As the Committee sees no further obstacles to admissibility, it declares the communication admissible and proceeds immediately to the consideration of the merits. 6.2 The Committee must decide whether the forced return of the petitioner to Sri Lanka would violate the State party's obligation, under article 3, paragraph 1 of the Convention, not to expel or return (refouler) an individual to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. In order to reach its conclusion the Committee must take into account all relevant considerations, including the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. The aim, however, is to determine whether the individual concerned would personally risk torture in the country to which he or she would return. It follows that the existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights in a country does not as such constitute sufficient grounds for determining whether the particular person would be in danger of being subjected to torture upon his return to that country; additional grounds must be adduced to show that the individual concerned would be personally at risk. Conversely, the absence of a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights does not mean that a person cannot be considered to be in danger of being subjected to torture in his or her specific circumstances. 6.3 The Committee has noted the petitioner's claim that he is in danger of being subjected to torture if he is returned to Sri Lanka due to his previous involvement with the LTTE, that he has allegedly already been maltreated twice by the authorities, and that he has scars on his body which the authorities would likely assume to have been caused by fighting for the LTTE. It has also considered the claim that, because of the brevity of the accelerated procedure, the petitioner was prevented from informing the authorities early on in the procedure that he had scars from earlier maltreatment and that this information may have allowed the authorities to