Russia begins formal withdrawal from UN anti-torture convention

Russia has officially started the process of withdrawing from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, an international treaty that obliges countries to protect people from torture and allows independent inspectors to monitor prison conditions.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin submitted a draft law to the country’s national legislature, the State Duma, on Aug. 8 to terminate the country’s participation in the convention.

Once Russia exits the convention, international inspectors will no longer have access to Russian prisons, and complaints from Russian inmates will not be reviewed by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. 

The Kremlin justified the move by claiming that, since 2023, Russia has lacked a representative on the committee after the Council of Europe blocked the appointment and allegedly failed to respond to Moscow’s requests to restore representation.

The convention, adopted by the UN in 1984, requires states to prevent torture and forbids sending people to countries where they may face danger. Russia signed on to the initiative in 1996, and the treaty came into force for the country in 1998.

Russia announced its intention to withdraw in August. At the time, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the move “in fact, an admission of guilt — acknowledgment of Russia’s systemic practice of torture and its attempt to avoid accountability for gross violations of human rights.”

The statement also said that “today’s Russia is a territory of lawlessness and degradation of human dignity. The decision to withdraw from the Convention against Torture only consolidates this reality and firmly places Russia among those states for which human life and dignity mean nothing.”.