CAT/C/RUS/CO/5
the result that perpetrators are not held accountable. The Committee also regrets that
persons convicted of offences amounting to violations of the Convention may have
benefited from amnesty. The Committee is also concerned about persistent reports
concerning acts of violence against women in the northern Caucasus, including killings and
so-called “honour killings” and bride-kidnapping, which constitute violations of the
Convention. With reference to its previous recommendations, the Committee remains
concerned that no report following the visits to the State party, including the northern
Caucasus, carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) have
been made public, and that no time frame has been set for the publication of these reports
(arts. 2, 4, 11, 12 and 16).
The Committee urges the State party to ensure that any counter-terrorism measures
taken in the north Caucasus region conform to the Convention’s prohibitions against
torture and ill-treatment.
The Committee recommends that the State party should;
(a)
Ensure that all complaints of denial of safeguards, torture, ill-treatment,
abduction, enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings, including acts of
violence against women in the northern Caucasus are promptly, impartially and
effectively investigated, that all those responsible for such abuses are held
accountable, prosecuted and sanctioned, and that victims of such abuses obtain
redress;
(b)
Ensure that no person found guilty of crimes constituting torture in
violation of the Convention benefits from amnesty;
(c)
Ensure that investigators are able to compel the cooperation of local
officials with investigations and that any official who refuses to cooperate is subjected
to penalties;
(d)
Publicize information on the number of unresolved cases of enforced
disappearance in the region, and keep family members of disappeared persons
informed of the progress of investigations and exhumation and identification of
remains.
With reference to its previous recommendations and the State party representative’s
assertion during the examination of the report that the authorities agree in principle
to make public the reports on the CPT country visits to the State party, the
Committee urges the State party to publish these reports, including those on visits to
the northern Caucasus. The Committee further requests the State party to inform it of
its timetable for their publication.
Violence against women
14.
Despite consistent reports of numerous allegations of many forms of violence
against women throughout the State party, the Committee is concerned that there are only a
small number of complaints, investigations and prosecutions of acts of domestic violence
and violence against women, including marital rape. It is also concerned about reports that
law enforcement officers are unwilling to register claims of domestic violence, and that
women who seek criminal investigations of allegations of domestic violence are compelled
to participate in reconciliation processes. The Committee is also concerned about the
absence in the State party’s law of a definition of domestic violence (arts. 1, 2, 11, 13 and
16).
The Committee urges the State party to define domestic violence in its legislation and
to ensure that all cases of violence against women, including domestic violence, are
registered by the police; that all allegations of violence against women are promptly,
impartially and effectively investigated; and that perpetrators are prosecuted. The
7