Another meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has come to an end in Strasbourg. It was dedicated to the execution of ECtHR judgments.  The agenda included, among other things, a discussion of measures taken by Russia to execute ECtHR judgments under the so called torture cases – cases of Alexey Mikheyev and Olga Maslova  and 14 other cases where the European Court had found Russia responsible for tortures and ineffective investigation. The Committee of Ministers summarized its position the following way:

«The Deputies,

1. took note with interest of the modifications in the legislation and administrative practice made by the Russian authorities since the events described in the judgments of the European Court;

2. noted however that notwithstanding these modifications, there are still issues requiring further general measures to ensure effective protection against torture and ill-treatment;

3. noted in this respect with satisfaction that the Russian authorities are currently engaged in a comprehensive reform of the Ministry of the Interior and that a draft law on this subject was submitted to Parliament by the President of the Russian Federation;

4. encouraged the Russian authorities to seize fully the opportunity offered by the ongoing comprehensive reform to ensure that the legal and regulatory framework for police activities contains all necessary safeguards against police arbitrariness and abuses similar to those found by the Court in its judgments.»

The Committee of Ministers will resume consideration of ECtHR judgments’ execution at its next meeting in March 2011. It must be noted that in the context of representing the interests of torture victims at the international level INGO “Committee Against Torture” cooperates with the Committee of Ministers to provide it with information under Russian cases tried by the ECtHR and about the situation with tortures in Russia in general.