OPENING REMARKS Remarks of Dean Claudio Grossman* G ood morning everyone and welcome to our law school, the American University Washington College of Law, for this conference on litigation before the United Nations Committee against Torture, which is co-sponsored by the World Organisation Against Torture. As we begin, I would like to mention that the proceedings of this conference will be published in the Human Rights Brief, which is a student-run publication of the law school that addresses current issues of international human rights law and is distributed to more than 4,000 subscribers around the world. complaints procedure under Article 22. Pursuant to this procedure, the Committee considers complaints from alleged victims, or on behalf of alleged victims, of violations of the Convention by States Parties.2 Since 1998, more than 522 complaints have been submitted to the Committee. The individual complaints procedure is only one of the methods of supervision developed by the Convention and applied by the Committee. Most of the Committee’s time is spent in its reporting system, which consists of periodic presentations by states—which are, in theory, submitted every four years, after an initial report—demonstrating the status of their compliance with the Convention. This important technique of supervision is mainly designed to analyze and evaluate the public policy of states and their compliance with their Convention obligations. Concluding Observations are the end result of this supervisory technique, through which the Committee determines the overall status of each state’s compliance with its Convention obligations, while the individual complaints procedure is designed to determine whether a violation of the Convention in relation to an individual’s rights, as alleged in the complaint, has taken place. If the individual’s rights have been violated, the state is compelled to provide redress and rehabilitation in accordance with Article 14 of the Convention.3 Because it is specific by nature, use of the individual complaints procedure is a more targeted way to address alleged violations of the Convention and to ensure states’ compliance with their obligations under the Convention. Our partner in organizing this event is the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). For us, as an educational institution, it is very important to work together with non-governmental organizations, civil society institutions, governments, and other entities, to achieve the common goals of human dignity. OMCT is an organization that has excelled in the struggle to have a world free from torture and other forms of inhuman treatment, and we are proud to collaborate with it. OMCT intends to increase its engagement on these issues by coordinating action with domestic and international NGOs that utilize the Committee’s procedures. The Convention against Torture was adopted in 1984 and currently has 153 States Parties.1 Of the Parties to the Convention, only 65 have made a declaration accepting the individual * Dean Claudio Grossman has been Dean of the American University Washington College of Law since his appointment in 1995. Dean Grossman also currently serves as Chair of the United Nations Committee against Torture and Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies, and member of the Governing Board of the International Association of Law Schools, of the Board of the InterAmerican Institute of Human Rights, and of the International Objectives Committee of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Dean Grossman is also serving as a referee in peer review evaluations for the European Research Council Dedicated Implementation Structure, under the Ideas Specific Programme (2008-2013). As a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 1993-2001, he served in numerous capacities including President (1996-97; 2001), Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women (1996-2000), and Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Populations (2000-2001). Dean Grossman has authored numerous publications on international law and human rights, and received numerous awards for his work in those fields including the 2010 Henry W. Edgerton Civil Liberties Award from the ACLU of the National Capital Area and the 2012 Deborah L. Rhode Award from the AALS Section on Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities. To date, of the countries that have declared acceptance of Article 22, most complaints submitted to the Committee have related to Article 3—meaning alleged violations of the provision of non-refoulement.4 But, as a result of the process of democratization that has taken place in various countries and which has created more open environments and led to more open discussions regarding violations, we have seen an increase in complaints alleging violations of Article 1 and Article 16, meaning 1