party argues in this connection that the author's deportation does not render his rights or pending actions ineffective or moot. 4.9 The State party also submits that the author could have sought a humanitarian and compassionate assessment of his case. It refers to X v. Sweden where the Committee found that such an application was an effective remedy since the Appeals Board in that case had the competence to grant the authors a residence permit.(4) This option was available to the author prior to the deportation and there was no time limit for submitting it. 4.10 The State party deems that the above-mentioned remedies are effective in the sense of article 22 (5) of the Convention. The author should therefore have pursued them prior to petitioning the Committee and has failed to exercise due diligence in not doing so. On the merits 4.11 As for the risk faced by the author, the State party refers to the principle, laid down by the Committee in the case Seid Mortesa Aemei v. Switzerland,(5) that it has to determine "whether there are substantial grounds for believing that [the author] would be in danger of being subjected to torture [in the country to which he is being returned]" and "whether he would be personally at risk". The State party also recalls that the burden of proof is on the author to establish that there are substantial grounds to believe that he or she would be personally at risk of being subjected to torture. 4.12 The State party submits that since the protection provided by article 3 is, according to the Committee's jurisprudence, absolute, irrespective of the author's past conduct, the determination of risk must be particularly rigorous. To that purpose, it refers to a decision of the European Court of Human Rights where it is stated with regard to article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights that "the Court's examination of the existence of a risk of ill-treatment in breach of Article 3 at the relevant time must necessarily be a rigorous one in view of the absolute character of this provision".(6) 4.13 In order to assess the risk of torture faced by the author, the State party contends that the following factors are pertinent: (a) whether the State concerned is one in which there is evidence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violation of human rights; (b) whether the author has been tortured or maltreated by or with the