CAT/C/46/D/310/2007 substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture. 9.3 In assessing whether there are substantial grounds for believing that the complainant would be in danger of being subjected to torture upon return, the Committee must take account of all relevant considerations, including the existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights in Syria. The aim of such an analysis is to determine whether a complainant runs a personal risk of being subjected to torture in the country to which he or she would be returned. It follows that the existence of a pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights in a country does not as such constitute sufficient reason for determining that a particular person would be in danger of being subjected to torture on 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 flagrant violations of human rights does not mean that a person might not be subjected to torture in his or her specific circumstances. 9.4 The Committee notes that the State party itself acknowledged that the human rights situation in Syria remains problematic, and recalls its concluding observations on Syria adopted in 2010, where it expressed concern about “numerous ongoing and consistent allegations concerning the routine use of torture by law enforcement and investigative officials, at their instigation or with their consent, in particular in detention facilities.”1 It also noted that “such acts commonly occur before formal charges are laid, as well as during the pre-trial period, when detainees are deprived of fundamental legal safeguards, in particular access to legal counsel.”2 The Committee notes that in the meantime, the human rights situation in Syria has seriously deteriorated in connection with the government’s crackdown on the protests for political reforms.3 In April 2011, during a special session of the Human Rights Council on the current human rights situation in Syria, all special procedures mandate holders of the United Nations Human Rights Council called upon the Syrian government to stop the use of violence and “to respect its human rights obligations, in particular with regard to the non-derogable rights to life and to freedom from torture and ill-treatment.”4 9.5 With regard to the complainant’s personal risk of being subjected to torture in case he is returned to Syria, the Committee notes that he has submitted documentary evidence in support of his claim, including a translation into Swedish of the judgement dated 7 October 1997 of the Syrian Supreme State Security Council convicting him of membership in a terrorist organization and sentencing him to three years’ imprisonment with hard labour. It also takes note of the forensic medical report dated 7 September 2004 and the psychiatric report dated 15 September 2004 from the Centre for Treatment of Crisis and Trauma Victims in Stockholm, which both confirm that it is likely that the complainant was subjected to torture in the past, without determining when such torture took place. It also notes the State party’s arguments relating to the complainant’s delay in submitting those documents and in raising his claims. However, the Committee considers that the complainant has provided satisfactory explanations for these delays, i.e. that his May 2003 application had been prepared by a non-lawyer and that it was only after receiving funds 1 Committee against Torture, 44th session (26 April-14 May 2010), Concluding observations: Syrian Arab Republic, UN doc. CAT/C/SYR/CO/1, at para. 7. 2 Ibid., at para. 7. 3 Amnesty International, Follow-up to the concluding observations on Syria adopted at the 44th session of the Committee against Torture, 17 May 2011, at p. 4. 4 Statement of all special procedures mandate holders of the United Nations Human Rights Council at the sixteenth Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, 29 April 2011. 14