Russia leaves European anti-torture convention, ending CPT monitoring mandate

Russia's withdrawal from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment took effect on 1 November, according to the Council of Europe's press service, as reported by European Pravda. The departure ends the monitoring mandate of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, known as the CPT, in the country.

Russia notified the Council of Europe of its decision to leave on 30 October 2025. The withdrawal followed a vote in the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, on 17 September 2025 to adopt legislation submitted by Vladimir Putin to denounce the convention. Russia had been a party to the agreement since 1998.

CPT President Alan Mitchell said the consequences extended beyond the termination of the committee's own work. Russia's departure, he said, also brought independent monitoring of places where people are deprived of their liberty inside the Russian Federation to an end.

During its work in Russia between 1998 and 2021, the CPT conducted 30 visits and inspected more than 450 places of deprivation of liberty. Access to its findings was limited, however. Russia was the only state party that refused to authorise publication of the committee's visit reports and the responses to them, leaving the Council of Europe able to release just four reports on visits to Russian detention sites.

The reports that remain unpublished cover both periodic inspections and ad hoc visits. They include material from 10 visits to Chechnya and the North Caucasus between 2000 and 2017, according to the account of the committee's work.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the CPT has received numerous reports alleging torture and ill-treatment by Russian officials in detention facilities. Those allegations concern facilities both in occupied Ukrainian territory and within Russia itself. The committee has been unable to visit and independently assess conditions because Russian authorities have refused to cooperate.

The Council of Europe contrasted that refusal with the conduct of the Ukrainian authorities. It said Ukraine continues to permit the CPT to enter any place of deprivation of liberty on its territory at any time.

In October, the UK announced sanctions against Russia that included restrictions targeting perpetrators of civilian torture and child indoctrination. The package also covered LNG shadow fleet vessels and Kremlin disinformation networks.