the decision patterns of a treaty body mechanism, the relative authority of the recommendations of the treaty body, the probability of enforcement of any compensation awards of the mechanism and/or the potential impact of the decision nationally.  What is the possible fallout of sending a complaint to a treaty body? There is often fallout from sending a complaint to a treaty body and these may be severe in case of one mechanism as compared to another. Some of the known fallouts of bringing complaints are a witch-hunt of the victim or the group assisting the victim to send complaints which in some cases have led to severe reprisals, a State’s unresponsiveness causing prolonged delay in the conclusion of the case, withdrawing of NGO and other status of the groups doing human right litigation, introduction of new laws and policies that strengthen control over human rights activities and regulate their existence. Awareness of the potential for such fallout may help the victim/survivor or the groups/NGOs to better deal with them.  What advocacy and campaign options can be employed to enforce, popularise or otherwise use the decision of the treaty body nationally? National advocacy using international instruments or decisions of the treaty bodies are discussed in detail in the next section. The following are some of the ways a decision may be used: - The decision many help initiate or strengthen existing campaigns on law reform on issues of sexual violence. The decision may be quoted extensively in national litigation at all the levels that would assist with education of judicial and other law officers. The decision may be summarised, published and distributed to a wider audience as ways to raise awareness of sexual violence as a violation of human rights. The decision may be used for education of law enforcement agencies on how to strengthen the due diligence responsibility of the State. The decision may be popularised through the trainings, workshops and other events of local and national human rights organisations and NGOs. The above strategies are broadly the ones that assist with planning and effective execution of human rights litigation on sexual violence. However, given that the violation is sexual violence, there may be local specificities that may also need to be considered and highlighted. Such specificities may either hinder access to international mechanisms (e.g. where the victim/survivor is part of the cultural practice where women are subordinated and kept out of public discourse and therefore not available to the same extent as witnesses) or promote access to such mechanisms (existence of local women’s council that supports and encourages women to come forward and testify). 7.4 National Advocacy To address individual complaints or prosecution against individuals, regional and international mechanisms are options where victims and survivors are unable to obtain justice domestically. However, these systems are physically remote from the victims and the situation about which redress is sought. It is important therefore for the long term if human rights and women’s rights activists campaign to bring the standards set in the human rights mechanisms home. National advocacy campaigns for ratification of regional or international treaties and law reform have the potential to change laws, rules and procedures relating to investigation and prosecution or other remedies for sexual violence or other forms of violence against women. The process of ratifying a regional or an international treaty often requires States to pass legislation to nationally implement the provisions of the treaties. Campaigns to ratify regional/international treaties and passing domestic legislation are therefore opportunities to advocate for inclusion of best standards in defence of human rights and in its practice. For example, several countries that have ratified the International Criminal Court treaty have adopted the Rome Statute of the treaty en masse, resulting in domestic recognition of crimes of sexual violence as war crimes, crimes against REDRESS | 7. LITIGATION AND ADVOCACY STRATEGIES 77