CAT/C/RUS/CO/6 unwillingness to hold perpetrators accountable. These reports include the cases of the attack against human rights defenders and journalists during a press tour in Chechnya in 2016 and the arrest and detention of Oyub Titiyev, the head of the human rights organization “Memorial”, on allegedly false drug charges in 2018 (arts. 2, 4, 11, 12 and 16). 47. The State party should take all the necessary measures to: (a) Promptly, impartially and effectively investigate all past and ongoing human rights violations, including abductions, arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, in the northern Caucasus, prosecute and punish the perpetrators and provide victims with redress; (b) Ensure that victims of torture, their family members, their lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders are protected against retaliation by public officials and that claims of such retaliation, including the above-mentioned cases in Chechnya, are investigated with a view to bringing the perpetrators to justice. Crimea and the City of Sevastopol 48. Without prejudice to the legal status of Crimea under international law, and emphasizing the fundamental importance of the principle of territorial integrity of all States Members of the United Nations, the Committee notes that Crimea is under the effective control of the Russian Federation and that the Russian Federation has the obligation to implement the Convention in Crimea. The Committee expresses its concern about: (a) Persistent reports of serious human rights violations, including abductions, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial killings, particularly of Crimean Tatars, pro-Ukraine activists and affiliates of the Mejlis, by members of the Federal Security Service and the “Crimean self-defence” forces; (b) Information that since 2014, torture has been routinely used by the authorities to obtain false confession for politically motivated prosecutions, including in the case of Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker, who was allegedly tortured in Crimea; (c) Reports that of 106 allegations of torture by public officials from February 2014 to June 2018, not a single case was effectively investigated; (d) Deplorable conditions of detention, in particular inadequate access to medical care which resulted in numerous deaths in custody; (e) Limited access to detention facilities by an independent monitoring mechanism, civil society and lawyers of detainees; (f) Denial of access to Crimea by the international human rights monitoring mechanisms, particularly the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine (arts. 2, 4, 11, 12 and 16). 49. The State party should take immediate measures to put an end to the practice of torture in Crimea, including for the purpose of pressuring, punishing and/or extracting confessions from political opponents and activists such as Oleg Sentsov. The State party should promptly, impartially and effectively investigate all complaints of torture and other acts prohibited by the Convention, in particular such acts committed by members of the Federal Security Service and the “Crimean selfdefence” forces. It should ensure the prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators and provide victims with redress. The Committee also invites the State party to ensure unimpeded access to Crimea by the international human rights monitoring mechanisms, in particular the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine. Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova 50. Without prejudice to the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, the Committee considers crucial the State party’s participation in the “5+2 talks” concerning the situation in the Transnistrian region in bringing about the prevention and prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, noting the alleged prevalence of human rights violations and the 11