4 United Nations Convention Against Torture and its Optional Protocol treaties against hostage-​taking and other forms of terrorism.11 In addition to obligations aimed at bringing individual perpetrators of torture to justice before domestic criminal courts, the Swedish Draft also contained a number of suggestions for the prevention of torture. With respect to international monitoring, it proposed to entrust the Human Rights Committee with special tasks of examining State reports, deciding on individual and inter-​State complaints, as well as conducting ex officio inquiries. The Swedish Draft was chosen by the Working Group as the main basis for its deliberations.12 In 1980, Costa Rica proposed to the Human Rights Commission a draft for an Optional Protocol to the draft Convention against Torture which was based on the experiences of the ICRC and a private Swiss proposal of Jean-​Jacques Gautier, a Geneva-​ based banker. The Costa Rica Draft, which was actively supported by the International Commission of Jurists and the Swiss Committee against Torture, aimed at introducing a system of preventive and unannounced visits to places of detention.13 Between 1978 and 1984, the inter-​sessional Working Group of the Human Rights Commission under the chair of the Dutch diplomat Herman Burgers, despite strong ideological differences between the Western, Socialist, and other concepts of human rights, succeeded in finding a compromise on most of the controversial issues, including the principle of universal jurisdiction.14 Instead of entrusting the Human Rights Committee with the additional task of monitoring compliance with the CAT, the Working Group proposed to establish a Committee against Torture consisting of ten independent experts. When the Human Rights Commission adopted the draft Convention of the Working Group in March 1984 and transmitted it to the General Assembly,15 only two controversial questions remained open: the competence of the Committee against Torture to issue country specific comments and suggestions in relation to State reports under Article 19 and the mandatory character of the inquiry procedure under Article 20 CAT.16 Since most States were eager to adopt the Convention quickly, Western States in the Third Committee of the General Assembly gave in to certain demands of Socialist States.17 The result is the ‘opting-​out clause’ in Article 28 CAT and a highly ambiguous provision about ‘general comments’ on specific State reports in Article 19(3) CAT.18 11   Arts 8(2), 11, and 14 of the Swedish Draft in E/​CN.4/​1285 of 18 January 1978. See also Danelius in Riklin (n 8) 35. 12   See Burgers and Danelius (n 7) 38. 13   Draft Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment submitted by Costa Rica (1980) UN Doc E/​CN.4/​1409; see also Stefan Trechsel, ‘Privater Schweizer Entwurf Für Eine Internationale Konvention Gegen Die Folter’ in Alois Riklin (ed), Internationale Konventionen gegen die Folter:  Conventions Internationales Contre la Torture:  International Conventions against Torture (P Haupt 1979) 45; ICJ and Swiss Committee against Torture (eds), Torture—​How to Make the International Convention Effective: A Draft Optional Protocol (2nd edn, 1980); Cristian Dominicé, ‘Le projet Gautier: utile et nécessaire’ in André Bieler, Francis Blanchard and Cristian Dominicé, Il Faut Croire À La Lumiére: mélanges offerts à Jean-​Jacques Gautier initiateur d’un nouveau moyen de lutte contre la torture (Comité Suisse contre la torture 1982) 11; Trechsel, ‘Probleme und aktueller Stand’ (n 8) 245, 249ff; Hans Haug, ‘Das Projekt eines Fakultativprotokolls zur Internationalen Konvention gegen die Folter’ 91 (1982) Das Schweizerische Rote Kreuz 8. 14 15   cf Burgers and Danelius (n 7) 34–​99.   CHR Res 1984/​21 of 6 March 1984. 16   cf Nowak, ‘Die UNO-​Konvention’ (n 3) 114 et seq. 17   cf Report of the Third Committee, thirty-​ninth Session (1984) UN Doc A/​39/​708. 18  cf Nowak in M Nowak, D Steurer and H Tretter (eds), Fortschritt im Bewußtsein der Grund-​und Menschenrechte: Progress in the Spirit of Human Rights: Festschrift für Felix Ermacora (Engel 1988) 493, 499ff. See also below Art 19, §§ 60–​70; Art 28.