The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has published the report on its October 2023 periodic visit to Ukraine, the first since the start of the full-scale military aggression by Russia in February 2022. Despite the efforts by the Ukrainian authorities and the general improvement of the situations in some areas, issues of concern remain, such as the high proportion of remand prisoners and the consequent overcrowding, informal prisoner hierarchy and poor material state of some of the facilities. (Read the executive summary)
The Committee acknowledges the considerable efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to provide adequate conditions to persons deprived of their liberty in these extremely difficult times. One of the positive findings illustrating the steps to improve the treatment of persons detained by the police is that the great majority of the persons in police custody indicated that the police had treated them correctly. That said, the CPT’s delegation did receive allegations of physical ill-treatment and excessive use of force upon apprehension as well as of psychological pressure and threats.
The situation with applying the fundamental legal safeguards against ill-treatment (notification of custody, access to a lawyer and to a doctor) has generally improved as compared to the CPT’s previous periodic visit to Ukraine in 2017. It is positive that persons in police custody were almost systematically questioned in the presence of a lawyer; there is ongoing progress in introducing a nation-wide comprehensive electronic custody record; the institutions of Human Rights Inspectors and the State Bureau of Investigation are being developed.
As regards prison establishments, whilst welcoming the continued efforts made by the Ukrainian authorities over the past 25 years to reduce the country’s prison population, the Committee notes that the proportion of remand prisoners remained high and that many of them continued to be held in overcrowded conditions for prolonged periods of time.
The delegation received no allegations of recent ill-treatment by staff in any of the prisons visited. However, the visit revealed that the long-standing phenomenon of informal prisoner hierarchy was still prevalent throughout the Ukrainian prison system. In this context, the situation of persons considered to be “humiliated” (those who find themselves at the bottom of this hierarchy) remains a matter of serious concern to the CPT. The Committee calls upon the Ukrainian authorities to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for combating inter-prisoner violence and intimidation and tackling the phenomenon of informal prisoner hierarchy with all its negative consequences. Staffing levels in the prisons visited should be significantly increased, too.
Most of the prisons visited by the delegation were in old buildings that have not been repaired for years, therefore the bulk of the prisoner accommodation in these establishments was in a poor state of repair. The situation was particularly precarious at Odesa Pre-Trial Detention Facility (SIZO) where the conditions of detention of the great majority of prisoners could, in the CPT’s view, easily be considered as inhuman and degrading.
The Committee also notes with concern that the situation in respect of out-of-cell activities for remand prisoners had not improved since its previous visits. As concerns the provision of healthcare to prisoners, the number of general practitioners and the nursing staff resources in the establishments visited should be increased, the existing procedures for the recording of injuries improved, and medical confidentiality fully respected.
In the military detention facilities (“hauptvakhtas”) visited, the delegation received no allegations of ill-treatment of detained military servicemen by staff. Material conditions of detention in these establishments were overall acceptable. It is of particular concern, however, that there were no organised activities for servicemen on remand who were obliged to spend 23 hours per day inside their cells, often for long periods (months and even years).
