“The SCA notes, that in Article 23 (1) of the Law on the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation, provides the Commissioner with the mandate to visit places of deprivation of liberty. However, the SCA notes that the Commissioner reported that this mandate is only given to the Commissioner and not to OCHR’s staff, and that this affects the institution’s ability to carry out this mandate effectively.

The SCA notes that the OCHR is also advocating for having the mandate to function as a National Preventive Mechanism.

The SCA encourages the Commissioner to advocate for the OCHR staff to also be authorized to conduct unannounced visits to all places of deprivation of liberty.”