Russia will formally withdraw from Europeâs convention for the prevention of torture, a move some rights advocates say is largely symbolic given the countryâs already worsening human rights record.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree on Saturday proposing that President Vladimir Putin submit the withdrawal to the State Duma, Russiaâs lower house of parliament. The decree was first made public on Monday evening.
The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted in 1987, allows inspections of detention facilities across member states. Russia ratified the treaty in 1998, two years after joining the Council of Europe, which promotes democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
Russia quit the Council of Europe in March 2022 after being suspended over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Later that year, it also withdrew from the European Convention on Human Rights, ending its obligation to recognize rulings from the European Court of Human Rights.
Russia remains a party to the UN Convention Against Torture, which it ratified in 1985.
The rights group Crew Against Torture warned the withdrawal could worsen conditions in Russian prisons. It noted that during Russiaâs 27 years in the convention, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture made 30 visits and drafted 27 reports â only four of which Moscow agreed to publish.
The NGO said the convention helped ease overcrowding, improve conditions in penal colonies and secure better protections for some inmates.
âRussiaâs withdrawal... marks the final dismantling of the European human rights monitoring system in the country. The decision deprives prisoners of the last formal international protections and paves the way for further declines in human rights conditions,â the group said on Telegram.
No date has been set for Russiaâs formal exit from the treaty.
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âChildren have the right to choose their own path. Our son chose his and we will walk it with him, no matter what.â
These are the words of the mother of a Russian teenager now serving a prison sentence for opposing the war in Ukraine.
While his family knew about his political views, they never expected him to take public action.
âWe always thought we understood each other: if you speak out, you wonât change anything â youâll only make your own life harder,â the mother said in an interview with The Moscow Times, reflecting on the risks they had discussed long before her sonâs protest. She spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
Her son will spend five more years in prison.
His case is one of a growing number of instances in Russia where schoolchildren who express anti-war views face pressure â from teachers reporting them to the authorities to interrogations at police stations.
In some cases, teenagers are sentenced to prison, separated from their families and forced to continue their studies while in detention.
Opposition teens
It is difficult to estimate how many Russian teenagers oppose or support the war. Sharing these views openly, even with friends or classmates, can be dangerous. At least 544 minors had been detained over anti-war protests as of 2023, according to human rights watchdog OVD-Info.
Yet that has not stopped some teenagers from questioning the invasion.
This week, a prosecutor in Kazan sentenced 15-year-old activist Sevastyan Sultanov to one year of restricted freedom and barred him from attending public events. His crime: painting two pieces of anti-war graffiti and expressing support for the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
In another case, Varvara Galkina, who was just 10 at the time, was reported to police by her school principal for posting an online poll about the war and changing her profile picture in a student chat to an image of Saint Javelin, a pro-Ukrainian meme.
Galkina and her mother were summoned to the police station for questioning, and the family was placed on a watchlist by the juvenile affairs commission.
Denis Bushuev, a promising athlete on the national ski jumping team, staged a solo protest on the first anniversary of the invasion at age 17. Holding a sign that read âNo to war. No to madnessâ on the main street of his hometown, Nizhny Novgorod, he was detained and fined the maximum penalty â 50,000 rubles ($600) â for âdiscrediting the Armed Forces.â
Silent protest
âI donât talk to others about my stance and try to avoid controversial topics altogether,â said 16-year-old Darya in an interview with the youth media project Novosti 26.
âIt bothers me when people try to force those conversations,â she said.
