CAT/C/23/D/118/1998 page 6 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. 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 all domestic remedies have been exhausted, and considers that there is no reason why it should not declare the communication admissible. Since both the State party and the author have provided observations on the merits of the communication, the Committee proceeds with the consideration of those merits. 6.2 The issue before the Committee is whether the expulsion of the author to the Democratic Republic of the Congo would violate the State party’s obligation under article 3 of the Convention not to expel or return a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture. 6.3 The Committee must decide, pursuant to article 3, paragraph 1, whether there are substantial grounds for believing that the author would be in danger of being subjected to torture if returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In reaching this decision, it must take into account all relevant considerations, pursuant to article 3, paragraph 2, including the existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. The aim of the determination, however, is to establish whether the individual concerned would be personally at risk of being subjected to torture. The existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights in the country does not as such constitute a sufficient ground for determining that a particular person would be in danger of being subjected to torture upon returning to that country; there must be other grounds indicating that he or she would be personally at risk. Similarly, the absence of a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights does not mean that a person cannot be in danger of torture in his or her specific circumstances. 6.4 In the present case it must be pointed out that the author has provided neither the Committee nor the State party with any evidence that he was a member of MPR or that his family has been persecuted by the current regime in Kinshasa. The Committee does not find his explanations for the absence of such evidence convincing. Nor has the author provided evidence of the alleged persecution to which former, in particular junior, members of MPR are supposedly subject at present owing to their support for the country’s former president and active backing for the opposition to the regime currently in power. 6.5 The Committee is concerned at the many reports of human rights violations, including the use of torture, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but recalls that for the purposes of article 3 of the Convention the individual concerned must face a foreseeable, real and personal risk of being tortured in the country to which he or she is returned. In the light of the foregoing, the Committee deems that such a risk has not been established.