CAT/C/33/D/133/1999 page 8 Issues and proceedings before the Committee as to admissibility 6. Before considering any claims contained in a communication, the Committee against Torture must decide whether or not it is admissible under article 22 of the Convention. The Committee has ascertained, as it is required to do under article 22, paragraph 5 (a) and (b), of the Convention, that the same matter has not been and is not being considered under another procedure of international investigation or settlement, and that the complainant has exhausted all domestic remedies; this rule does not, however, apply if it is established that application of domestic remedies has been or would be unreasonably prolonged or would be unlikely to bring effective relief to the victim. 7.1 The Committee takes note of the complainant’s allegations to the effect that the Federal Court, in ruling on his case, did not apply the criteria appropriate to a fair hearing and that the internal procedure as conducted violated article 16 of the Convention. In the Committee’s view, however, the complainant has not successfully demonstrated that the incidents on which his complaint is based amount to the cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment referred to in article 16 of the Convention. The complaint being insufficiently substantiated, the Committee finds this part of the communication inadmissible. 7.2 As regards the arguments relating to article 3 of the Convention, the Committee takes note of the State party’s comments to the effect that internal remedies had not been exhausted since the complainant did not apply to the Federal Court for approval or judicial review of the refusal to allow him humanitarian status. 7.3 The Committee observes that at its twenty-fifth session, in its final observations on the report of the State party, it considered the question of requests for ministerial stays on humanitarian grounds. It expressed particular concern at the apparent lack of independence of the civil servants deciding on such appeals, and at the possibility that a person could be expelled while an application for review was under way. It concluded that those considerations could detract from effective protection of the rights covered by article 3, paragraph 1, of the Convention. It observed that although the right to assistance on humanitarian grounds is a remedy under the law, such assistance is granted by a minister on the basis of purely humanitarian criteria, and not on a legal basis, and is thus ex gratia in nature. The Committee has also observed that when judicial review is granted, the Federal Court returns the file to the body which took the original decision or to another decision-making body and does not itself conduct a review of the case or hand down any decision. The decision depends, rather, on the discretionary authority of a minister and thus of the executive. The Committee adds that since an appeal on humanitarian grounds is not a remedy that must be exhausted to satisfy the requirement for exhaustion of domestic remedies, the question of an appeal against such a decision does not arise. The Committee thus concludes that all the necessary conditions have been met, and that article 22, paragraph 5 (b), does not prevent it from considering the communication. 7.4 The Committee also recalls its case law4 to the effect that the principle of exhaustion of domestic remedies requires the petitioner to use remedies that are directly related to the risk of torture in the country to which he would be sent, not those that might allow him to remain where he is.