The Russian Federation is a party to the Convention against Torture and, unusually among the countries on this page, an individual subject to its jurisdiction can complain to the Committee against Torture about it. The Committee has found torture practised in Russia as a means of extracting confessions. A United States immigration judge has granted withholding of removal to Russia.
Why this page exists
Russia is one of the countries people in the register are resisting being returned to. It has no arrangement with the United States to receive people removed from it, and it does not appear in the States Engaging in Refoulement project.
What Russia has accepted
The depositary record shows signature on 10 December 1985 and ratification on 3 March 1987. Both acts were those of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the obligation passed to the Russian Federation as the successor state. A page on this site should say so rather than imply that the Russian Federation signed in 1985.
On 1 October 1991 the Soviet Union made declarations under both article 21 and article 22. The article 22 declaration states that it recognises the competence of the Committee “to receive and consider communications in respect of situations or events occurring after the adoption of the present declaration, from or on behalf of individuals subject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims of a violation by a State Party of the provisions of the Convention.”
That matters for a person. Unlike Cuba, Nicaragua, Nigeria, The Gambia and Sudan, Russia has opened the individual complaint route. The declaration reaches only events after 1 October 1991.
What the Committee against Torture found
The Committee examined Russia and adopted concluding observations on 8 August 2018, at its sixty-fourth session. Under the heading Torture and ill-treatment, at paragraph 12, it recorded:
“The Committee is deeply concerned at numerous reliable reports of the practice of torture and ill-treatment in the State party, including as a means to extract confessions”
What the register records
Vashchuk v. Bondi, Western District of Washington, 11 February 2026. A Russian man who arrived at a port of entry and was detained in May 2024 sought asylum on the ground that he feared persecution in Russia for opposing corruption. An immigration judge found he had a well-founded fear of future persecution by the Russian government and granted withholding of removal, recording that but for the presumption of ineligibility required by the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule she would have granted asylum outright.
The government then proposed to remove him to Uganda, by notice of intent in September 2025. Requests were later sent to Denmark, Norway and Sweden, with no reply. The entry is in the register of court decisions.
Sources
Treaty status and the text of the article 21 and 22 declarations: United Nations Treaty Collection, depositary record for the Convention against Torture, chapter IV-9, read 14 September 2026.
Committee against Torture, concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of the Russian Federation, CAT/C/RUS/CO/6, adopted 8 August 2018: docs.un.org.