8 LAW-ENFORCEMENT EQUIPMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA AND THE SOUTH CAUCASUS Figure 2.1. Restraint chair © Robin Ballantyne/Omega Research Foundation. Restraint chairs (see figure 2.1) are chairs into which a subject can be strapped or cuffed in order to prevent escape, or prevent harm to themselves or others. Some models have wheels that allow for the complete restraint of a subject while moving them around a location. Restraint chairs are currently known to be manufactured in the USA and China, and are written into Georgia’s new Law on Imprisonment (see chapter 6) as new items permitted for use by relevant law-enforcement or security personnel. Danger occurs when the subject is left unattended, restrained for prolonged periods or when additional force is used once a subject is already restrained, such as the use of electric-shock equipment or chemical irritants. Additional danger occurs if the subject is restrained while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The European Commission has added restraint chairs to the list of equipment prohibited for import and export by member states under European Council (EC) Regulation 1236/2005. It should be noted that the prohibition extends to chairs fitted with ‘shackles or other devices to restrain a human being’. This prohibition does not currently extend to devices fitted with straps or belts. Wall cuffs (see figure 2.2) are especially designed to be anchored to a wall or another fixed object and have been condemned by the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), which has repeatedly stated that ‘chaining inmates to . . . fixed objects is totally unacceptable in any circumstances and could be considered as inhuman and degrading treatment’.13 In a report to the Russian Government following its visit in May–June 2012, the CPT reported on the use of wall cuffs, and of cuffing subjects to fixed objects, and recommended that ‘the Russian authorities take measures to ensure that this apparatus is removed from the IVS No. 1 in Kazan, as well as 13
Reprinted in Omega Research Foundation and Amnesty International, From Words to Deeds: Making the EU Ban on the Trade in ‘Tools of Torture’ a Reality, EUR 01/004/2010, <http://www.omegaresearchfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/eur010042010en.pdf>, p. 20.