This open letter was adressed to the Council of Europe’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). As Russia will cease to be a member of the CPT on 1 November 2026, the signing organisations urge the Committee to issue a public statement on the deliberate and widespread use of torture by the Russian authorities and reaffirm the inviolability of the principles underpinning the CPT’s mandate.
Dear Mr President,
Dear Members of the Committee,
As the date on which the Russian Federation’s denunciation of the Convention will take effect approaches, we solemnly urge your Committee, pursuant to Article 10(2) of the Convention, to make a public statement on the deliberate and widespread use of torture by the Russian authorities and the structural factors underlying and sustaining that practice, and to publish all relevant reports that remain confidential — namely, the vast majority of them — or, at the very least, the substance of the findings and recommendations they contain.
Indeed, it is now firmly established that torture lies at the heart of a coordinated policy of the Russian State and that the penal system — which lies at the heart of the CPT’s mandate — constitutes one of its main instruments. In its judgment in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia, the European Court of Human Rights found that the violations amounted to “a pattern or system of inhuman and degrading treatment and torture”, concluding that “the organised and systemic practices cannot have taken place without the awareness and involvement of senior Russian government figures”.[1] The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that the Russian authorities had acted pursuant to a “coordinated State policy” and documented a division of labour among the services and security forces involved in the commission of torture.[2] It further found that: “In well-established detention facilities, regular personnel of the Federal Penitentiary Service, known as ‘FSIN’, and its special purpose units, known as ‘Spetsnaz’, impose routine harsh practices designed to scare, break, humiliate, coerce and punish detainees.”[3] For her part, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation reported that torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are used as “State-sanctioned tools for systemic oppression” in the Russian Federation and are “infamous features” of its penitentiary system.[4] She noted in particular that torture is used as a method of punishment and intimidation against political prisoners and anti-war activists.[5]
Torture lies at the heart of a coordinated policy of the Russian State and the penal system constitutes one of its main instruments
This coordinated policy of using torture to entrench a tyrannical order amounts to an outright rejection of the principles underpinning the Convention — in other words, conduct far graver than a failure to co-operate or a “refusal to improve the situation”, the circumstances contemplated by Article 10(2) as grounds for making a public statement.
It is true that, in the public statement it adopted on 18 November 2024, the Committee already highlighted the Russian authorities’ general and persistent lack of co-operation with the Committee.
However, on the eve of the date that formally marks the end of the Russian Federation’s participation in an instrument intended to eliminate torture from the European continent, we consider that response insufficient. We consider it essential that the systematic and outright repudiation of the Convention’s requirements be expressly characterised as such.
Your Committee has gained considerable authority through its tireless work in identifying the most unacceptable forms of treatment and setting out the conditions required for their elimination. Faced with what is undoubtedly the most tragic instance of large-scale denial of human dignity in the entire history of the CPT, we consider it essential that it make its voice heard.
There is little doubt that the Russian authorities will scoff at such a statement, just as they have openly displayed their contempt for the concerns raised by the CPT in 2024.
Yet the statement we are calling for is essential in its own right, because it would affirm that such conduct offends the collective European conscience and reaffirm the inviolability of the principles underpinning the CPT’s mandate. Conversely, merely taking note of the withdrawal of a State that has resorted to extreme violence can only weaken the prohibition of torture and risks normalising it.
The public course of action we are advocating is also essential because, by identifying and explaining the structural factors that enable and sustain this violence, it will provide vital points of reference for the future transformation of the Russian prison system when political conditions make such a transformation possible. Although a democratic future for Russia may appear unattainable today, the work of identifying those factors and laying the groundwork for dismantling the Soviet legacy must begin now: prison reform quickly recedes from view in periods of political upheaval, while the prison system plays a key role in perpetuating a culture of State violence. In our view, such transitional justice considerations must now guide the CPT’s approach to this matter. This concern is also consistent with the spirit of the Reykjavík Summit, convened to “renew the Conscience of Europe”, and with the Reykjavík Declaration, which states: “Only by respecting the right to truth, to justice, to reparation and to guarantees of non-repetition will it be possible to overcome the past and create solid foundations to build unity in the spirit of harmony and co-operation with respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.” [6]
Yours sincerely,
Ales Bialiatski, Ales Bialiatski Foundation (2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate)
Center for Civil Liberties (2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate)
Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre (2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate)
European Prison Litigation Network
OVD-Info
Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
Protection for Prisoners of Ukraine
Russland hinter Gittern e.V.
[1] Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia [GC], nos. 8019/16, 43800/14, 28525/20 and 11055/22, judgment (merits), 9 July 2025, para. 1082; see also paras. 794, 817, 824, 896, 942, 951, 1008 and 1067–1083.
[2] Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, A/79/549, 25 October 2024.
[3] Statement by Pablo de Greiff, Commissioner of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, to the United Nations Security Council Arria-Formula Meeting, 13 January 2025
[4] Mariana Katzarova, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Torture in the Russian Federation: a tool for repression at home and aggression abroad, A/79/508, 11 October 2024, para. 2.
[5] Ibid., para. 58.
[6] Council of Europe, Reykjavík Declaration – United around our values, 16–17 May 2023, Appendix I.