Seeking Remedies for Torture Victims: A Handbook on the Individual Complaints Procedures of the UN Tready Bodies considerations, in choosing a regional forum over a UN forum, are summarized as follows from www.bayefsky.com:311 – – – – – – – – – – The likelihood of obtaining a favourable decision. The substantive reach and content of the treaty. The competence of the particular body to deal with the substantive issue. The past practice of the body in dealing with similar cases. The likelihood that the State party will implement the decision of the particular forum. The likelihood of obtaining injunctive relief in the form of requests for interim measures in the context of emergencies. The speed of the process. The cost of the procedure. The availability of legal aid. The availability of oral hearings. It has to be noted that the record of compliance by States with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights is high. The record of State compliance with regard to the decisions of the Inter-American and African bodies is less impressive. Nevertheless, decisions by the Inter-American Court have the advantage in being legally binding. It seems unlikely that a State that refuses to obey a regional court is going to abide by the recommendations of a quasi-judicial UN treaty body. Therefore, it is more probable that a complainant will get a satisfactory remedy after a favourable regional court decision. On the other hand, it must be noted that the regional bodies generally take a longer time to deal with a case than the UN bodies and that they may have more stringent time requirements for the submission of complaints.312 Furthermore, it seems that the UN treaty bodies are historically more likely to decide in favor of a complainant.313 Authors should also be aware of substantive differences between the relevant global and regional treaties, and divergences in jurisprudence, which may shed light on whether a UN forum might be more appropriate than a regional forum.314 311 See list in, “How to Complain about Human Rights Treaty Violations, Choosing a Forum”, para. 3, available at: http://www.bayefsky.com/complain/44_forum.php. 312 How to Complain about Human Rights Treaty Violations, Choosing a Forum, para. 3, available at: http://www.bayefsky.com/complain/44_forum.php. 313 Ibid. 314 For instance, the European Court of Human Rights has been more sympathetic to arguments that prolonged periods of time on death row breach the right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment  100