President Vladimir Putin has signed a law denouncing the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, which was unanimously approved by the State Duma on September 17. The authorities have also denounced Protocols No. 1 and No. 2 to the convention, signed on behalf of the Russian Federation in February 1996 in Strasbourg and ratified two years later. With the signing of the denunciation law, Russia is no longer obliged to allow international inspectors access to prisons, detention centers, and pre-trial facilities.
Since December 2023, Russia has not been represented in the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture due to the Council of Europe blocking the appointment of a new Russian member (after the previous one’s mandate expired), according to the explanatory note attached to the law. As a result, Moscow was no longer represented in the committee and was unable to participate in its work.
The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishmentrequired Russia not only to formally prohibit torture but also to prevent it in practice. To this end, the independent committee had the right to inspect Russian prisons, pre-trial detention centers, penal colonies, and psychiatric institutions, record violations, and demand their elimination. Since 1996, when Russia signed the convention, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture had regularly visited Russian detention facilities, publishing reports on torture and inhumane conditions, according to the human rights group First Department.
After Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022, cooperation with the organization almost completely ceased. The committee repeatedly complained that Moscow was ignoring its requests — both regarding visits to detention facilities and in response to high-profile cases, including the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the Polar Wolf penal colony in February 2024.
The formal proposal to withdraw from the convention was made to Putin by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on August 25. The president submitted the corresponding draft law on September 8. Human rights defenders warned that this step would complete the “dismantling of the European system of human rights oversight” in Russia, deprive prisoners in colonies and pre-trial detention centers of their “last formal international protection,” and create “conditions for the further deterioration of the human rights situation in the country.”
