Photo: Yevgeny Kurskov / TASS
On Aug. 25, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree proposing that Vladimir Putin withdraw Russia from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Russia signed the treaty in 1996 and ratified it two years later.
Over the past three years, Moscow has steadily cut ties with European human rights institutions, pulling out of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights while also refusing to comply with rulings issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Rights advocates say that Russia’s withdrawal from the anti-torture convention is the logical continuation of that course. In practice, they note, the mechanism has barely functioned inside Russia since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine.
What is the convention?
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), the main body created under the convention, serves as an oversight mechanism to combat torture and ill-treatment in detention facilities, including holding centers, prisons, penal colonies, migrant detention centers, police stations, and psychiatric hospitals where convicts can be sent for compulsory treatment. In member states, a range of professionals — lawyers, rights defenders, doctors, and experts in the field of law enforcement — are authorized to visit places of detention in order to speak with prisoners. The main enforcement tool is publicity, with reports and recommendations to state authorities serving as a means of implementing pressure to improve conditions.
As noted by the Russian rights group Team Against Torture, the CPT was the first international body specifically designed to prevent torture. Russia ratified the convention in 1998 and has officially remained a member for 27 years.
As the rights group noted: “During that time, [CPT representatives] visited Russia 30 times and prepared 27 reports. Only four of them were published — publication requires the host country’s consent.”
Did it make a difference?
The CPT’s position often carried weight in ECHR rulings (1, 2). Its findings also helped in urgent cases, especially when an individual was tortured in a facility that was previously visited by delegates from the CPT.
Though the committee typically operated without publicity, the rights group said it still managed to address some problems during its visits: alleviating overcrowding in cells, arranging for repairs, and even securing the release of certain prisoners. Concrete steps usually followed the publication of CPT reports, with authorities at least adopting limited measures to improve detention conditions.
Most of these successes took place in the 2000s and early 2010s. The Team Against Torture noted that the CPT provided effective external oversight only “when Russia was ready for dialogue.”
Dismantling oversight
The CPT’s last visit to Russia took place in 2021. Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has methodically severed all legal ties with European rights bodies: the Council of Europe, the ECHR, and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Remaining connections, including with the CPT, have also suffered. Although Russia formally remained a party to the convention, by late 2023 the committee said Russian authorities were ignoring requests for information on specific cases, including the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison in February of last year.
“The European Committee [for the Prevention of Torture] gave independent experts the chance to visit Russian prisons, but after the invasion of Ukraine this mechanism effectively stopped working,” said Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer with the rights project Perviy Otdel (Department One).
Ivan Pavlov, lawyer and founder of Perviy Otdel, described the situation after 2022 as “a crisis of international law.” Russia left the Council of Europe, ceased work with all its bodies, and left its CPT seat vacant.
“This is purely a technical issue,” says Pavlov. “For the past three years, Russia has not participated in the Committee in any way, and there have been no communications or international inspections. What will happen? There will be a deterioration of the control system. Previously, there was at least some external oversight — foreigners would come and they would be shown around prisons and given a smokescreen. Now there will be none of that. Everything will remain on the conscience of the local authorities. Torture existed even when Russia was part of this Convention and participated in the Committee for the Prevention of Torture. Torture continued afterwards.”
Smirnov said that, in practice, Russia’s withdrawal will not produce a noticeable effect. The country remains a party to the UN Convention Against Torture, which is overseen by the UN Committee Against Torture. Given its interest in retaining a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Moscow is unlikely to quit that organization.
But while Russia may formally adhere to the requirements of human rights bodies, the reality is very different. Ivan Pavlov said incidents of torture in detention facilities have increased since the full-scale invasion began, and alongside the abuse of inmates, accounts of torture of prisoners of war and civilians have become widespread in Russian colonies.
Each member state of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture had its own representative, elected by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. These experts acted in an individual capacity rather than representing their governments. To ensure impartiality, they did not take part in visits to detention facilities in their own countries.