A/HRC/13/42* page 133 (h) Victims of secret detention should be provided with judicial remedies and reparation in accordance with relevant international norms.491 These international standards recognize the right of victims to adequate, effective and prompt reparation, which should be proportionate to the gravity of the violations and the harm suffered. As families of disappeared persons have been recognized as victims under international law, they should also benefit from rehabilitation and compensation; (i) States should ratify and implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Given that the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture requires the setting-up of monitoring systems covering all situations of deprivation of liberty, adhering to this international instrument adds a layer of protection. States should ratify the Optional Protocol and create independent national preventive mechanisms that are in compliance with the Paris Principles (Principles relating to the status of national institutions), and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Other regional systems may wish to replicate the system put in place by the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons;492 (j) Governments have an obligation to protect their citizens abroad and provide consular protection to ensure that foreign States comply with their obligations under international law, including international human rights law; (k) Under international human rights law, States have the obligation to provide witness protection. Doing so is indeed a precondition for effectively combating secret detention. 491 Articles 2.3.and 9.5 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 14.1 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. See also the relevant standards contained in the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (General Assembly resolution 40/34), and the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly in its resolution 60/147. 492 Article XIV stipulates that “when the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights receives a petition or communication regarding an alleged forced disappearance, its Executive Secretariat shall urgently and confidentially address the respective government, and shall request that government to provide as soon as possible information as to the whereabouts of the allegedly disappeared person together with any other information it considers pertinent, and such request shall be without prejudice as to the admissibility of the petition.”