7.2 The Committee must evaluate whether there are substantial grounds for believing that the complainant would be personally in danger of being subjected to torture upon return to Bangladesh. In assessing the risk, the Committee must take into account all relevant considerations, pursuant to article 3, paragraph 2, of the Convention, including the existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. However, the Committee recalls that the aim of such determination is to establish whether the individual concerned would be personally at risk of being subjected to torture in the country to which he would return. It follows that the existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights in a country does not as such constitute a sufficient ground for determining that a particular person would be in danger of being subjected to torture upon his return to that country; additional grounds must exist to show that the individual concerned would be personally at risk. Similarly, the absence of a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights does not mean that a person cannot be considered to be in danger of being subjected to torture in his or her specific circumstances. 7.3In the present case, the Committee observes that the Aliens Appeals Board accepted the complainant’s (belated) contention that he had been subjected to torture in January 1997. The Committee notes, however, that the complainant’s case was based on the contention that, as a political activist for the BFP, false charges were brought against him, and that he suffered abuse at the hands of the police, as a result of political pressure from the government authorities then in power. The Committee notes that this practice has been documented by several sources. In the light of the six years that have passed since the alleged torture took place, however, and, more pertinently, given that the complainant’s political party now participates in government in Bangladesh, the Committee considers that the complainant has failed to show that substantial grounds existed, at the time of his removal, that he was at a real and personal risk of being subjected to torture. 8.The Committee against Torture, acting under article 22, paragraph 7, of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, considers that the complainant has not substantiated his claim that he would be subjected to torture upon return to Bangladesh and therefore concludes that the complainant’s removal to that country did not constitute a breach by the State party of article 3 of the Convention. Notes Appendix Individual opinion by Committee member, Mr. Fernando Mariño(dissenting in part) I wish to indicate my disagreement with the Committee’s decision declaring this complaint inadmissible ratione materiae on the grounds that the complainant’s claim of a possible violation of articles 2 and 16, should he be expelled, is incompatible with the Convention (art. 22, para. 2). On the one hand, the fact that expulsion causing the subject severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, may constitute torture within the meaning of article 1 of the Convention if, for instance, it is enforced pursuant to a discriminatory policy, should not be discounted. In any event, the right way to respond to the claim of a violation of article 2 in the complaint under consideration would have been to find it inadmissible on the grounds that it was manifestly unfounded (rules of procedure, rule 107 (b)), if that is what the Committee had wanted. On the other hand, expulsion can obviously constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and here, too, the Convention imposes obligations on States parties. The exercise, in other words, is to consider not just how States are complying with their obligations under article 3 of the Convention, but how they are complying with all their obligations under an agreement whose ultimate objective is (sixth preambular paragraph) to “make more effective the struggle against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment throughout the world”. A further consideration is that under article 31, paragraph 3, of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, when interpreting a treaty account must be taken, together with the context, of “any relevant rules of international law applicable in the relations between the parties”; this is relevant inasmuch as it applies to the possible existence of general rules of international law prohibiting cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In keeping with the Committee’s jurisprudence in case B.S. v. Canada (case No. 166/2000, decision adopted on 14 November 2001) it would, in my judgement, have been more correct to find that the complaint raised substantive issues relating to a possible violation of article 16 which should be dealt with at the merits and not at the admissibility stage. (Signed): Mr. Fernando Mariño B. Decisions on inadmissibility Communication No. 202/2002 Submitted by:Helle Jensen (represented by counsel,Mr. Tyge Trier and Mr. Bent Sørensen) Alleged victim:Ms. Helle Jensen State party:Denmark