Russia leaves European anti-torture convention, ending independent prison monitoring

Withdrawal takes effect

Russia has formally left the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Council of Europe said the exit took effect on Sunday, 1 November 2026. Moscow notified the organisation on 30 October 2025, and the withdrawal was to take effect one year after that notice. Russia had been a party to the convention since 1998, and the Council says the exit ends all independent monitoring of Russian places of detention.

What ends with the exit

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) carried out 30 visits to Russia between 1998 and 2021 and inspected more than 450 places of detention. Russia was the only state that almost never allowed the committee's reports on those visits to be published, and only four reports were released. The unpublished documents include reports on regular and special visits, among them 10 visits to Chechnya and the North Caucasus between 2000 and 2017. According to the Council, Russia could permit publication of these documents at any time. The committee's chair, Alan Mitchell, said the exit means the end of any independent monitoring of places of detention on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Visits to Russia30

Places of detention visited (over 450)450

Reports published4

Visits to Russia

30

Places of detention visited (over 450)

450

Reports published

4

Data from the article text

Allegations and the Ukraine comparison

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Council received a large number of reports of alleged torture and ill-treatment in Russian detention facilities and in occupied Ukrainian territories. Because Moscow refused to cooperate, the CPT could not visit Russia to assess these claims. Rights advocates have long argued that torture and degrading treatment are widespread in Russian police stations and prisons. Accounts from Ukrainian prisoners of war freed in exchanges describe torture in Russia, and the reporting differs on the share, with some describing nearly all of them and others a large part. The Council contrasts this with Ukraine, whose authorities continue to give the committee access to any place of detention on Ukrainian territory at any time the committee chooses, and which publish the CPT's reports automatically.

Moscow's stated reason and wider context

Moscow justified its exit by saying it could no longer take part in the work of the committee. Russia had already been excluded from the Council of Europe in 2022 because of the war in Ukraine. The Council's position is that, while Russia remains outside the convention, the committee has no means to check conditions in Russian prisons and other detention sites. The exit was announced in 2025 and became effective on 1 November 2026, so the convention's inspection regime no longer applies to Russia.