ANNEX – International and regional human rights systems 49 II. INTERNATIONAL REMEDIAL AVENUES When domestic remedies fail to provide prompt and adequate redress to torture victims, States commit a new violation under international law independent of the substantive (torture) infringement, namely, a breach to the international duty to afford reparation. It is at this moment that States become liable under international law and victims may seek reparation at an international forum. There is currently no general international human rights court where individuals can bring claims against States, so the forum varies depending on the international remedies available in each country. States have to agree to the jurisdiction of an international court or body specifically allowing individuals injured under their jurisdiction to bring challenges against them. There are regional human rights mechanisms like the European, Inter-American and African systems and universal (UN) human rights bodies, like the Human Rights Committee or the Committee Against Torture. The International Criminal Court (ICC) does strictly speaking not form part of the international human rights system as it deals with individual liability for international crimes rather than state responsibility. It is nevertheless extremely important, being the first permanent international court that has jurisdiction to investigate international crimes, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and to prosecute and punish those responsible. In an important innovation, the Rome Statute of the ICC allows victims to participate in proceedings to make their views and concerns heard and to claim reparation, either from the individual perpetra195 tor or through the Victims’ Trust Fund. Human rights systems are mechanisms that monitor States’ compliance with specific human rights conventions: for example the European Court of Human Rights monitors compliance of state parties to the European Convention on Human Rights or the UN Human Rights Committee monitors state compliance the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The way they monitor state compliance with their conventional obligations is through reports that states parties are obliged to submit periodically to the treaty body concerned and indi196 vidual complaints procedures. Some of these complaints procedures do offer a remedy for victims of torture, for example the European, African and InterAmerican Courts of Human Rights have the power to order the State to afford reparation directly to the victims, however the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, or the UN Human Rights Committee and Committee Against Torture can only recommend to the State to provide reparation to the victims. But even if States do not comply with these recommendations, victims may still find that a decision recognising their suffering and the wrong done to them is a form of satisfaction. Regional and international human rights bodies can also play an important role in fostering a domestic human rights culture and in furthering domestic implementation of international standards relating to the prevention, accountability and reparation for torture. A prominent example is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights whose jurisprudence has prompted a series of legislative, institutional and practical changes on the domestic level, including, e.g., significant progress in the abolishment of amnesty laws in Peru.197