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
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