Back Council of Europe anti-torture Committee issues a public statement regarding the Russian Federation

The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) issues a public statement today addressing the persistent lack of cooperation by the Russian authorities with the CPT.
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee issues a public statement regarding the Russian Federation

The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is an open convention, which means that the Russian Federation has continued to be bound by its provisions even after its expulsion from the Council of Europe in March 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine.

The CPT has sought to engage in a constructive dialogue with the Russian authorities to enable the Committee to resume its monitoring visits to places of deprivation of liberty in Russia. All State Parties to the Convention must put in place the necessary arrangements to enable monitoring visits to take place on their territory. In addition, as part of the standard exchanges between the Committee and a state party, the Committee has requested the Russian authorities to provide it with information on certain specific events which have raised concerns, such as the sudden death of Mr Alexei Navalny while in detention.

No information was provided in response to these requests, nor was any action taken to enable the Committee to carry out monitoring visits in the Russian Federation.

The CPT considers that the lack of any substantive response to its requests and the inaction of the Russian authorities in enabling the Committee to exercise its preventive mandate in the Russian Federation represents a failure to cooperate. Therefore, the Committee has decided to make this public statement in accordance with Article 10, paragraph 2, of the Convention.

A signal of the Russian authorities’ commitment to the prevention of torture would be to address the fundamental issue of their cooperation with the Committee. Authorising the publication of the 23 unpublished CPT visit reports and their responses by the Russian authorities would be another clear indication.

This is the fifth public statement of the CPT concerning the Russian Federation. The four previous statements related to the specific situation found in the Northern Caucasian region and were made in 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2019.

The full text of the CPT’s public statement on the Russian Federation is available in English, French and Russian.

 

 

18/11/2024
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