Russia withdraws from Council of Europe anti-torture convention

Russia formally withdrew from the Council of Europe's European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on November 1, the Council of Europe said. Russian authorities had notified the body of their decision to denounce the convention on October 30, 2025, and the denunciation took effect one year later under the notification procedure.

Alan Mitchell, president of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, said in a statement published by the Council of Europe that the withdrawal marks the end of the CPT's monitoring mandate in Russia and the end of any independent monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty inside the country.

The Council of Europe said the CPT had received numerous accounts of alleged acts of torture at the hands of Russian authorities since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It said that due to non-cooperation by the Russian authorities, the CPT was unable to conduct a visit to Russia to examine the situation for itself.

Ukraine remains a signatory of the convention, alongside 45 other member states of the Council of Europe. Russia left the Council of Europe in 2022 after the body voted on its expulsion in March of that year, weeks after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.