20 5. UNLAWFUL WEAPONS AND RELATED EQUIPMENT The following are weapons and related equipment that violate international human rights law. The list is not exhaustive. 5.1 UNLAWFUL WEAPONS The use of the following weapons is widely considered to violate international human rights law. They should not be used in law enforcement: • Spiked batons62 • Lasers designed to cause permanent blindness63 • Directed energy weapons liable to cause serious injury64 5.2 UNLAWFUL RELATED EQUIPMENT The following equipment is inherently degrading or unnecessarily painful and should not be used in law enforcement: • Metal chains (shackles) • Leg or wrist irons65 • Thumbscrews or thumbcuffs • Spiked or electrified instruments of restraint • Weighted instruments of restraint See for example European Parliament and Council Regulation No. 2019/125 concerning trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, 16 January 2019. 63 Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV to the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons). 64 See for example Jürgen Altmann, “Millimetre waves, lasers, acoustics for non-lethal weapons? Physics analyses and inferences”, Forschung Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung (DSF) No. 16, Osnabrück, Germany (available at http://bit.ly/2sDlmIc). 65 Nelson Mandela Rules, rule 47 (1). 62