Russia withdraws from the Convention against torture
Russian President Putin has signed a law withdrawing from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The document was published on the official legal information portal of the Russian Federation.
The explanatory note stated that this was due to Russia’s exclusion from the Council of Europe in 2022, as this meant that from 2023 onwards, the procedure for electing a new member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture from the Russian Federation would be suspended.
The Council of Europe developed the Convention in 1987. Russia ratified it in 1996. The document introduced a mechanism for preventing torture. Experts from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture have the right to visit places of detention, record their conditions, and compile reports based on this data. Signatory countries are obliged to eliminate these violations.
After signing the withdrawal, Russia is no longer obliged to allow international inspections, and complaints from people in places of detention will no longer be considered.
“The denunciation means that the Kremlin is deliberately avoiding international control and depriving the world of leverage to respond to the facts of torture in prisons in the Russian Federation and in the temporarily occupied territories where Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians are being held. It is also a clear political signal that Moscow does not recognize European standards and is no longer committed to rules that protect human dignity. In wartime, such a rejection of control mechanisms inevitably increases the risks of massive and systematic human rights violations,” said Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
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