E/CN.4/2005/62 page 5 human rights programme with three interlinked components: treaty bodies, special procedures, and technical cooperation”. In addition to the heads of human rights field presences, the participants included the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights, and a representative of the treaty bodies. 11. On 25 November 2004, the Special Rapporteur participated in a meeting with the Committee against Torture, with a view to strengthening collaboration between the two mechanisms. II. STUDY ON THE SITUATION OF TRADE IN AND PRODUCTION OF EQUIPMENT WHICH IS SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO INFLICT TORTURE OR OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT, ITS ORIGIN, DESTINATION AND FORMS 12. Pursuant to the request of the Commission on Human Rights to study the trade and production of equipment specifically designed to inflict torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (resolutions 2001/62, para. 9 and 2002/38, para. 13), the Special Rapporteur presented a preliminary study at the fifty-ninth session (E/CN.4/2003/69; see also E/CN.4/2004/56, paras. 66-68). 13. The Special Rapporteur noted therein that the allegations of torture that he has received from all regions of the world have involved instruments such as restraints (e.g. shackles, chains, bar fetters, leg irons, thumb-cuffs and shackle boards), electro-shock weapons (e.g. batons; stun guns, shields and belts; and tasers), kinetic impact devices (e.g. lathis, truncheons and sjamboks), and chemical control substances (e.g. tear gas and pepper spray). While some of the cases have involved the use of equipment which is inherently cruel, inhuman or degrading, and would per se breach the prohibition of torture, the vast majority have involved the misuse of those instruments, legitimate in appropriate circumstances, to inflict torture or other forms of ill-treatment. Moreover, instruments never designed for law enforcement purposes (e.g. garden hoses, electrical extension cords and plastic pipes) are often implicated in allegations of torture and ill-treatment. These observations are consistent with existing research, which indicates that only a fraction of the equipment used for torture is “specifically designed” for that purpose alone. The scope of the use of the instruments, the nature of their effects, and the international legal standards that restrict their use and require adequate training and accountability of law enforcement personnel have been well documented and discussed elsewhere.1 14. Despite an international legal framework in place to prohibit and prevent torture and ill-treatment, the use (or misuse) of these instruments continues to be facilitated by a lack of implementation of these international standards. Moreover, it is facilitated by a lack of specific measures to control the trade and proliferation of such instruments. 15. In resolution 2004/41, the Commission on Human Rights requested the Special Rapporteur to carry out further work with a view to finding the best ways to prohibit the trade and production of equipment specifically designed to inflict torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and to combat its proliferation. The present report builds upon the findings of the preliminary study, and uses them as a point of departure to outline an effective and efficient policy strategy to prevent the spread of “torture technology”, i.e. commonly used