Russia withdraws from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, ending independent monitoring of its places of detention

Russia has formally withdrawn from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, and with it ends independent international monitoring of places of detention in the country. The withdrawal took effect on November 1, a year after Moscow notified the Council of Europe, on October 30, 2025, as Article 22 of the Convention requires. The Council of Europe confirmed the development in an announcement the same day.

“The withdrawal of the Russian Federation marks the end of the CPT’s monitoring mandate in the country. It also marks the end of any independent monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty within the Russian Federation,” said Alan Mitchell, president of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). He explained that the Convention’s preventive approach remains as important as ever, because independent monitoring of places of detention is a fundamental safeguard against torture and ill-treatment.

30 visits, only four published reports

Russia ratified the Convention in 1998. From then until 2021 CPT delegations made 30 visits to more than 450 places of detention in the country. Moscow, however, was the only party that systematically refused to allow publication of the Committee’s reports and its own replies, authorising the release of just four. The unpublished reports include ten visits to Chechnya and the other regions of the North Caucasus between 2000 and 2017. “Russia can allow the publication of the reports at any time,” the Council of Europe notes.

Allegations of torture in Russia and the occupied territories

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the CPT has received many allegations of torture and ill-treatment by Russian officials in detention facilities and penal colonies, both in occupied Ukrainian territory and inside Russia. “Owing to the lack of cooperation by the Russian authorities, the CPT was unable to visit the Russian Federation to examine the situation itself,” the announcement says. The Council of Europe contrasts this with Kyiv’s approach, which allows the Committee to visit any place of detention at any time and automatically publishes its reports.

Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, and the same year left the European Convention on Human Rights, ceasing to be subject to the European Court of Human Rights. Human rights organisations warn that the withdrawal removes the last international safeguard for prisoners in the Russian penal system, and credit the Convention with reducing overcrowding and improving conditions in penal colonies. Russia remains a party to the UN Convention against Torture, which it ratified in 1985.