Lecture for the Latvian Legal Community: Torture, ECHR Standards, ECtHR Case Law and the Impact of Russian Aggression on the Ukrainian Justice System

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia for the invitation and for organising this event — it is a particular honour for me to have the opportunity to spend a whole day in dialogue with representatives of the Latvian legal community.

The audience included officials from the Ministry of Justice, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the State Police, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office of the President and other key institutions — a wide range of specialists whose practical involvement in matters of the rule of law lent the discussion particular substance.

The lecture covered three interrelated topics:

The prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment in the practice of the ECtHR — the standards of Article 3 of the Convention, key case law and the procedural obligations of states regarding effective investigation.

The CPT’s preventive mechanism — the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture’s approaches to monitoring places of detention, confidential dialogue with governments, and the role of the Committee’s recommendations in shaping national prison policy.

The impact of Russian armed aggression on criminal justice in Ukraine — transformations in the justice system under martial law, challenges to the independence of the judiciary, the documentation of war crimes and international accountability.

Such meetings serve as an important platform for disseminating knowledge of international human rights standards among practitioners and for strengthening solidarity among democratic legal systems in the face of authoritarian threats.