10 LAW-ENFORCEMENT EQUIPMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA AND THE SOUTH CAUCASUS Figure 2.3. Thumb cuffs © Robin Ballantyne/Omega Research Foundation. therefore necessary to prohibit the trade in thumb and finger cuffs’.16 The USA also controls the trade in thumb cuffs considering them to be ‘specially designed implements of torture’ (covered under ECCN 0A983 of the Commerce Control List) and, as such, operates a general policy of denial over their export. However, there appears to be a certain level of ambiguity in the reporting on the export of a range of restraints, including thumb cuffs, within the annual reports to Congress by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Such reports make regular reference to the granting of licenses for ‘thumb cuffs, leg irons and shackles’ under ECCN 0A982. These have, for example, been granted to Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.17 While we realize this is likely because the code’s description has not been updated to reflect the 2007 reassignment of thumb cuffs from the 0A982 to the 0A983 category, this reporting introduces a level of uncertainty as to exactly what types of equipment were licensed for transfer, and poses the question as to whether thumb cuffs have been erroneously licensed under category 0A982. In relation to the South Caucasus and Central Asian regions we have no evidence for the transfer or use of thumb cuffs other than that which is ambiguously (and perhaps mistakenly) contained in the BIS annual reports. II. Electric-shock equipment Electric shock equipment is designed to temporarily disable an individual by delivering a high-voltage electric shock. Examples of equipment commonly used and sold in the Caucasus and Central Asia include direct-contact stun guns (see figure 2.4), batons and shields, and ‘projectile’ electric-shock equipment. Direct contact, electric-shock equipment aims to enforce compliance through pain or, in some cases, the fear of pain. Due to this, nongovernmental organizations such as Amnesty International believe that such weapons have a highly questionable law-enforcement function. 16 ‘commission implementing regulation (EU) No 775/2014 of 16 July 2014 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1236/2005 concerning trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’, paras 4, 6. 17 See US BIS Annual Reports from 2008 to 2014, available from <http://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/about-bis/newsroom/publications> and <http://www.bis.doc.gov/ index.php/about-bis/newsroom/archives/27-about-bis/501-annual-reports-archives>.