CAT/C/RUS/CO/5 5. The Committee welcomes the information provided concerning various legislative, administrative, institutional and practical measures taken to improve the promotion and protection of human rights in the State party since the examination of the fourth periodic report, notably: (a) The establishment of the Investigative Committee in charge of investigations, separate from the Procuracy, thus giving effect to the Committee’s previous recommendation; (b) The establishment of the mechanism for monitoring places of detention through Public Oversight Committees (POCs) in the 2008 Federal Law on Public Oversight of Respect for Human Rights in Places of Detention and Assistance to Inmates of Places of Forced Detention; (c) The adoption, on 30 April 2010, of Federal Act No. 68 FZ on Compensation for Infringement of the Rights to Access to Legal Proceedings or Enforcement of a Judicial Act within a Reasonable Period; (d) The practical measures taken, including through legislative amendments, resulting in a decrease in the incarcerated population and the number of individuals in pretrial detention, by reducing the number of penalties under criminal law, excluding detention for a number of economic crimes and recourse to alternative punishments, which, as explained by the State party’s representative, is part of the effort to move towards the humanization of criminal punishment. C. Principal subjects of concern and recommendations Torture and ill-treatment 6. The Committee is concerned over persistent reports of the widespread practice in the State party of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including as a means to extract confessions. It notes the discrepancy between the large number of complaints of torture and ill-treatment and the relatively small number of criminal cases brought in response leading to prosecution. The Committee is also concerned about the State party’s statement in its report that no cases of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment had been found in remand centres, whereas the Committee is aware of many recent reports documenting acts of torture in such centres, for example in the cases of Pavel Drozdov and Sergei Nazarov, both of whom died following torture in detention in 2012 (arts. 2, 4, 12 and 16). As a matter of urgency, the State party should take immediate and effective measures to prevent all acts of torture and ill-treatment throughout the country and to eliminate impunity for those allegedly responsible. The State party should unequivocally reaffirm the absolute prohibition of torture and publicly make clear that perpetrators and those complicit or acquiescent in torture will be held responsible for their abuses and will be subject to criminal prosecution and appropriate sanctions. Definition of torture and criminalization of torture 7. With reference to its previous concluding observations, the Committee remains concerned that the definition intended to cover the term “torture”, as contained in the annotation to article 117 of the Criminal Code, does not fully reflect all elements of the definition in article 1 of the Convention, which includes the involvement of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity in inflicting, instigating, consenting to or acquiescing to torture. The definition does not address acts aimed at coercing a third party as torture. The Committee is also concerned that article 117 has rarely been used in practice, and that officials suspected of acts of torture are mostly prosecuted under article 2

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