28 Grasping the nettle: Ending Europe’s Trade in Execution and Torture Technology chemicals be included within the scope of coverage and that further chemicals that could potentially be employed in revised lethal injection protocols are also considered. We recommend that the Commission consider amending the list of goods that could be used for the purpose of capital punishment (as listed in Annex IIIa) to include: hydromorphone, midazolam, pancuronium bromide, rocuronium bromide and vecuronium bromide. Given the rapidly evolving situation in the U.S. with a number of States actively exploring new lethal injection protocols, the range of toxic chemicals covered by this Regulation procedure should be regularly reviewed by the Commission and changes made to Annex IIIa as and when required. However, Amnesty International and Omega recognize the utmost importance of ensuring that transfers of pharmaceutical chemicals are not delayed or impeded in any way to health practitioners who would utilize these chemicals for legitimate and potentially life-saving medical practices. Consequently we recommend that our proposed expansion of Annex IIIa should not take place until the Commission proposals in this area have been agreed and introduced i.e. a system of Union General Export Authorizations for EU exports to abolitionist States, and individual or global export authorizations to non-abolitionist States. Secondly, whilst Amnesty International and Omega support the Commission’s proposed urgency procedures (see Chapter 5), we are concerned that there may in certain cases be delays in reaching agreement to add specific pharmaceutical chemicals to Annex IIIa in order to control their transfer under the Regulation. There may even be a refusal to do so, as a result of the inability of relevant sections of the Commission to agree such action. This could occur even where a Member State wishes to halt a specific transfer of such chemicals from their own territory concluding that the specific transfer is intended for use in the death penalty. Amnesty International and Omega Recommendation: We recommend that individual EU Member States should be granted the authority to immediately suspend a specific transfer of a pharmaceutical chemical to a particular end user in a case where the Member State has evidence that the chemicals will be employed for inflicting the death penalty. Amnesty International and Omega believe that this is best enacted through the introduction of a targeted end-use clause (see Chapter 6 of this report for further discussion). Amnesty International and Omega would like to seek clarification about the consistency of applying the criteria used to select countries to be included in the list of destinations under Annex IIIb, i.e. countries covered by a Union General Export Authorization. Specifically, Annex IIIb includes certain countries that still retain the death penalty in their legislation. One of these countries – Liberia – has, for instance, expanded the scope of the death penalty after becoming a State Party to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in stark opposition to that instrument’s goal of the abolition of the death penalty. Amnesty International and Omega Recommendation: We recommend that those countries presently on Annex IIIb and potentially covered by a Union General Export Authorization, despite retaining the death penalty in their legislation - namely Benin, Liberia, Madagascar and Mongolia – be excluded from this Annex. Amnesty International May 2015 Index: EUR 01/1632/2015