E/CN.4/2005/62 page 9 Just as the equipment described earlier may be non-lethal and legitimate if used correctly, these new technologies have the potential to be used for torture and ill-treatment, including collective punishment, if abused. Therefore, thorough research into their effects on people, stringent training and restrictions on their transfer need to be considered. C. Transfer of interrogation techniques and know-how 31. A number of States are important providers of training and assistance to the military, security or police forces of foreign States. This training and assistance may have the potential to benefit recipient communities by providing better-skilled military or law enforcement officers who respect the rule of law and seek to promote and protect the rights of the civilian population. However, unless such transfers are stringently controlled and independently monitored, there is a danger that they will be used to facilitate torture and ill-treatment. 32. Furthermore, the provision of security and/or military services by private contractors to both governmental and non-governmental clients has become a growing market, and one that has largely evaded proper regulation and monitoring by Governments. Inadequately controlled private security or military companies have sometimes facilitated and carried out torture and ill-treatment in the recipient countries. D. Update on the proposal for a regional control mechanism 33. The European Commission’s proposal of a Council Regulation “Concerning trade in certain equipment and products which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” was amended on 29 October 2004 (COM (2004) 731),6 and discussions in this regard are expected to be concluded in the near future. 34. If adopted by the EC and ratified by European Union member States, the regulation will ban trade in equipment which “has no, or virtually no, practical use other than for the purpose of ” capital punishment or torture from member States to countries outside the EU. Included in the regulation’s draft list of equipment whose trade would be absolutely prohibited are restraints such as leg irons, gang chains and shackles, individual cuffs or shackle bracelets, thumb-cuffs and thumbscrews, including serrated thumb-cuffs. 35. The proposed regulation will also put strict controls on the trade in equipment that it regards as having legitimate uses but which “could be used for the purpose of ” capital punishment or torture. This category includes electric shock batons and shields, stun guns and tasers, tear gas and pepper spray. EU Governments would be required to strictly control the trade in such equipment and refuse to authorize their transfer to any law enforcement authorities that have practised torture within the previous five years, or where there are “reasonable grounds to suspect or believe” that the law enforcement authority concerned is committing or tolerating acts of torture.