Submission to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in view of the review of the case Buntov v. Russia

A coalition of leading Russian NGOs together with the European Prison Litigation Network submitted its observations to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in view of the examination of the implementation of the ECtHR judgement in the case Buntov v. Russia during its meeting on 23-25 September 2019.

>> Read the full observations of the coalition here (in English)

In this case the European Court concluded that the applicant was subjected to torture in January 2010 while held in an isolation cell in a correctional colony. It further held that the investigation carried out into his allegations was ineffective (substantive and procedural violations of Article 3).

The Committee of Ministers examines, under Article 46 of the ECHR, whether the Russian authorities have taken the general measures necessary to avoid a repetition of this violation.

The present communication is devoted to the issue of the effectiveness of the current independent monitoring mechanism in Russia. In their Action Plan, the Russian authorities present this mechanism as one of the key and effective tools for ensuring the prohibition of torture in closed institutions in practice.

In fact, the mechanism has been seriously altered over the past three years by replacing its experienced members with ‘front men’. The coalition of NGOs consider it is essential from the point of view of the effectiveness of the prohibition of torture in Russian prisons that the Committee of Ministers takes a very firm position on this subject.