Russian dictator Volodymyr Putin signed a law on condemning the European Convention on the prevention of torture and inhuman processing.
In addition, reports of the Convention, signed by Russia in February 1996 in Strasbourg and were ratified in March 1998, were also rejected. This was reported today, September 29, reports Meduza.
The European Convention on Torture Prevention was approved by the Council of Europe in 1987. Russia ratified it in 1996, when it became a member of the Council.
At the end of August this year, the Russian government prepared a proposal to abandon the Convention. The law on consideration was adopted by Putin on September 8. The State Duma approved the relevant law on September 17.
In an explanatory note, he said that the decision to withdraw from the Convention is due to the fact that “the Council of Europe blocks the election of a new member from the Russian Federation to the European Committee for torture” and since December 2023, Moscow has not been able to fully participate in this monitoring mechanism.
The European torture prevention not only prohibits torture, but also creates a mechanism for preventing them – there is a European torture prevention committee, whose employees can visit closed institutions (insulators, prisons, psychiatric hospitals) and give recommendations on how to improve the situation.
Over the years of Russia’s participation in the Convention, the Committee visited the Russian Federation 30 times (the last time in 2021) and prepared 27 messages about the results of visits. Only four of them were published, as the publication of the host country was supposed to publish.
Human rights activists note that after leaving the Convention, Russia is no longer obliged to provide access to prisons between international inspectors, which will lead to a deterioration in prison conditions and a “complete loss of attractions for the development of a penitentiary system in accordance with international standards”.
Source: Medusa
Source: Racurs
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