d) Section III: Preventive measures to guarantee the principle of “non refoulement”, paragraph 18 i) Recommended formatting change 28. We recommend that each positive obligation should be assigned its own paragraph for greater clarity and emphasis. ii) Paragraph 18, introductory paragraph 29. Paragraph 18 of the draft General Comment unwittingly omits any reference to judicial measures. However, the Committee has previously held that positive obligations under article 3 are: “to take all legislative, judicial and administrative measures to comply with the obligations under article 3” 34 (emphasis added). This paragraph includes a number of measures that States parties are legally obliged to take in order to ensure effective protection against refoulement that the Committee has already recognized as binding on States parties, under the Convention. In light of this, those obligations should be identified as such as opposed to referring to them as “recommended best practice”, as the current formulation of this paragraph does. Recommended textual change: For the purpose of fully implementing Under Article 3 of the Convention, States parties should are required to take legislative, administrative, judicial and other preventive measures against possible violations of the principle of “non-refoulement”. Such measures should at least include: Recommended best practices are: iii) Paragraph 18(a) and 18(c) 30. The value and clarity of paragraph 18(a) would be enhanced by setting out an express procedure for the assessment of non-refoulement claims. This duty is described in current paragraph 18(c), which we recommend should be listed first, before other sub-sections. If a claim for protection under article 3 of the Convention is made, a State has an obligation to assess that claim and determine whether there are substantial grounds for believing that the claimant would be in danger of being subjected to torture or other ill-treatment upon transfer. In all cases the essence of this positive obligation is that there must be an assessment procedure, established by the law and conducted in full compliance with procedural guarantees. This obligation applies to every non-refoulement claim, even in situations of mass influx.35 The duty to establish a procedure for the assessment of each claim should therefore be listed after the duty to adopt legislation (as described above). Recommended formatting change - paragraph 18(a) and (c). Move paragraph 18(c) up and place it before current paragraph 18(a). 34 CAT, Concluding Observations: Mongolia, UN Doc. CAT/C/MNG/CO/1, 20 Jan. 2011, para. 13. CAT, Concluding Observations: Hong Kong, China, UN Doc. CAT/C/CHN-HKG/CO/5, 3 Feb. 2016, para. 7 (b); CAT, Concluding Observations: Finland, UN Doc. CAT/C/FIN/CO/7, 20 Jan. 2017, para.13 (b). 35 15 AI Index: IOR 40/6040/2017