Russia Exits European Torture Treaty
Moscow's withdrawal from the 1987 Convention took effect November 1, ending the CPT's ability to monitor detention sites in the Russian Federation.
By Fatou Kim ·
Russia officially exited the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on November 1. The move ends the operational mandate of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, known as the CPT, within Russian borders.
Moscow notified the Council of Europe of its decision on October 30, 2025. Under treaty rules, the denunciation became effective one year later, which coincided with the current date. The legal process began earlier in the year when the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, voted on September 17, 2025, to adopt a draft law on denunciation submitted by Vladimir Putin.
Russia has held party status to the Convention since 1998. During that period, the CPT conducted 30 visits to the country. These inspections covered more than 450 places of deprivation of liberty. However, Russia remained the only state party that refused to authorize the publication of the committee's visit reports and the state's responses to them. As a result, the Council of Europe was able to publish only four reports on visits to Russian detention facilities.
The unpublished documentation includes records from 10 visits to Chechnya and the North Caucasus between 2000 and 2017. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the CPT received numerous reports of alleged torture and ill-treatment by Russian officials. These allegations occurred in detention facilities both in occupied Ukrainian territories and on Russian soil. The committee has been unable to conduct independent visits to assess these conditions because Russian authorities refused to cooperate.
Alan Mitchell, President of the CPT, stated that the withdrawal marks the end of the committee's monitoring mandate in the country. He added that it also marks the end of any independent monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty inside the Russian Federation. The Council of Europe noted a contrast between this approach and that of Ukrainian authorities, who continue to allow the CPT to visit any detention site on their territory at any time.
The Convention, adopted in 1987, obliges member states to prevent torture in territories under their jurisdiction. It also prohibits the extradition of individuals to countries where they might face torture. In October, the United Kingdom introduced a package of sanctions against Russia. This included restrictions against LNG shadow fleet vessels, Kremlin disinformation networks, and perpetrators of civilian torture and child indoctrination.
