The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to expel from the Russian Federation on March 16 in response to the military invasion of Ukraine. Although the Russian Foreign Minister had announced that his country would no longer participate in the Council of Europe as envisaged in the article 7 of its statutethe Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe came forward by applying article 8, which allows it to expel a member country that seriously infringes the provisions of its article 3: the recognition of the principles of the rule of law and the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in addition to sincere collaboration in the objectives of this organization.
In this way, and after 26 years, the Russian Federation has ceased to be one of the hitherto 47 members of the Council of Europe. Until now, there was only one precedent: the withdrawal from Greece in 1969 after the colonels’ coup, although it rejoined in 1974 with the restoration of democracy.
Four years after the end of World War II, the Council of Europe was formed. through the Treaty of Londonsigned on May 5, 1949. It was the first time in Europe that an organization emerged that brought together democratic countries with the aim of safeguarding and promoting common ideals and principles, favoring their economic and social progress and safeguarding human rights and fundamental freedoms.
On the basis of shared European values, in 1950 the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This treaty, a binding norm for all the member states of the Council of Europe, is the fundamental norm for the protection of civil and political rights in the territory of the member states. Also of people deprived of liberty.
Precisely for the protection of these rights, the Convention provides for the existence of a judicial body, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), with jurisdiction throughout Europe. This court is competent to resolve claims brought by any person who considers himself the victim of a violation of his rights by a Member State. If the court understands that this has been the case, it condemns the State and, where appropriate, determines compensation for the plaintiff.
Russia and Turkey, the most condemned countries
Russia is, after Turkey, the country with the most court convictions: 2,943. Also in the field of prison, Russia has a significant number of convictions for violations of rights in its prisons. There are many violations of the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment due to the conditions of overcrowding, overcrowding, lack of space and unsanitary conditions in their prisons.
She has also been sentenced for not having provided adequate health care in prison, for not investigating complaints of mistreatment, for the use of force or isolation in a cell, or for the systematic use of handcuffs on life sentences without sufficient justification.
She has also been convicted of violating the right to private and family life, either by prohibiting communication with the family, or by sending inmates to prisons thousands of kilometers away from their place of origin, such as the penal colonies in Siberia. , thus preventing any kind of family contact.
After their expulsion, the Russian Federation will cease to be a Contracting Party to the Rome Convention on September 16, 2022. Consequently, as of that date, Russian citizens will be outside the protective umbrella of the European Court of Human Rights against violations of their rights by Russia.
However, this court decided in its decision of March 22 that it will deal with all the complaints directed against Russia up to that date. And the Committee of Ministers has affirmed that it will continue with its competence to supervise the execution of sentences.
Death Penalty Free Territory
Another of the achievements of the Council of Europe had been to make this extensive territory a zone free of the death penalty, except for Belarus, which does not belong to this organization of countries.
As early as 1983, the Protocol No. 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on the abolition of the death penalty. In its article 1, the signatory Member States undertake to abolish the death penalty in times of peace. However, this Protocol allowed the provision in criminal law of this penalty for acts committed in time of war.
It is in 2002 when a further step is taken with the adoption of the Protocol No. 13regarding the abolition of the death penalty in any circumstance, prohibiting any type of reservation or derogation from this prohibition.
Precisely, in order to be a member of this body and meet this requirement, Russia established a moratorium on the application of the death penalty in the year of its incorporation, in 1996. However, the possibility of reintroducing this barbaric punishment had already been verbalized on some occasion by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. And as a result of the departure from the Council of Europe, former president Dmitri Medvedev has insinuated it, [vicepresidente del Consejo de Seguridad Ruso].
Europe: a space for the prevention of torture
To fight against torture, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) was created in 1987 through the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It is a preventive mechanism that examines the treatment of persons deprived of liberty under a public authority.
Since the beginning of its activity in 1989, it has dealt with the conditions of detention in European prisons. To do this, the Committee travels to the prisons it chooses, makes regular visits and interviews inmates, prison staff, relatives and lawyers. States cannot refuse to carry out these visits. On the contrary, the Convention obliges them to facilitate the members of the Committee access to their territory and to move at will through places of deprivation of liberty.
After each visit, the Committee prepares a national report with observations and suggestions to improve the protection of persons deprived of their liberty. Although the Convention provided for these reports to be confidential to ensure that States would accept the Committee’s work, virtually all countries request their publication.
Since the ratification of the Convention in 1998, the Russian Federation has been visited 30 times by the Committee. The last visit took place between September 20 and October 4, 2021. In it, special attention was paid to the treatment and conditions of detention of people in police custody and in prison, including those sentenced in penal colonies. However, Russia has only authorized the publication of 4 of the 26 reports made by the Committee. Not only that: on four occasions (in 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2019), the Committee has adopted against Russia the only mechanism it has to show the lack of collaboration of a state or the refusal to improve the situation: the realization of a public statement under art. 10.2 of the Agreement.
The recommendations of the Council of Europe
In the field of prisons, the Council of Europe has carried out important work with the aim of developing the protection of human rights through the adoption of recommendations addressed by its Committee of Ministers to the Member States. In them, the Council has expressed its constant concern that the States configure adequate penalties, use the prison sentence in a restrictive manner and introduce criminal alternatives and configure a compliance system based on respect for human dignity and directed towards the reintegration of the individual. in society.
Undoubtedly the best known are the European Prison Ruleswhose latest version, from 2006, has been recently revised in 2015. These Rules reflect the desire to build minimum standards of imprisonment based on European values and, specifically, on human dignity and the recognition of the rights of people deprived of liberty.
With the 23 Recommendations adopted from 1979 to today, the Committee of Ministers has concerned itself with issues as diverse as prison overcrowding, criminal mediation and restorative justice, alternatives to prison, parole, health care, education , foreigners, young people or the management of dangerous and sexual offenders.
Without being mandatory, they have undoubtedly served the Member States as a guide to articulate decent and adequate conditions in European prisons. Russia’s departure from the Council of Europe distances it from this beneficial influence.
Russia, the country that imprisons the most in Europe
With its departure from the Council of Europe, Russia will also no longer be subject to the control of public evidence. A very effective instrument for collecting data on incarceration and prison conditions in the countries of the Council of Europe are the annual country reports SPACE I.
These reports are made by a group of researchers from the University of Lausanne based on data provided by a network of co-managers from each Member State who work in prisons and in penal alternative services. Without a doubt, they are a valuable source of information that, in addition to giving a reliable picture through the data of the situation of the prisons, allows for comparative analyzes between the different European States.
Thank you to the last of these reports, that of 2021, we know that Russia is the state that imprisons the most people in Europe. With 478,714 people deprived of liberty on December 31, 2021, this meant a rate of 328.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, when the average value in the Council of Europe is 101.8. It is the fourth country with the highest percentage of women in prison (8.2%) behind Andorra, San Marino and Latvia.
It is also among the countries in which the time spent in prison is the longest, only behind Azerbaijan, Portugal and Moldova: 29 months, when the average value is 8.9.
Of course, Russia does not always give data. It has not done so, for example, with variables such as the number of inmates over 50 years of age, the number of foreigners in prison or the ratio between inmates and prison staff. Nor has it done so on the total number of cells or the average number of inmates per cell, which prevents knowing the degree of overcrowding and real overcrowding of its prisons, although the data as of January 31, 2021 indicate that the occupation is 66, 6 interns for every 100 places.
A worrying indicator is the forecast budget per inmate and day in 2020: if the average value is 77 euros, the Russian Federation only spent 2.6, the minimum of the then 47 member states.
Although with a relative impact, the Council of Europe was a form of evidence, supervision and control of the Russian authorities in their treatment of people deprived of liberty. With his expulsion, the victims will undoubtedly be Russian citizens, who are thus left even more unprotected with respect to their own country.
Cristina Rodriguez YagueProfessor of Criminal Law, specialization in Penitentiary Law, Castilla-La Mancha university
This article was originally published on The Conversation. read the original.