At the global level, in September 2017, the EU, Argentina and Mongolia launched the Alliance for Torture-Free Trade at the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The Alliance currently comprises over 60 states from all regions of the world pledging to “act together to further prevent, restrict and end trade” in goods used for torture, other ill-treatment and the death penalty. In June 2019, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution A/73/L.94, Towards torture-free trade, initiating a process for “examining the feasibility, scope and parameters for possible common international standards” for regulating international trade in this area. The first stage in this UN process resulted in the July 2020 publication of a UN Secretary General’s study of member states’ positions, which found that the majority of respondent states supported international standards, with most believing these should be legally binding. The second stage is now underway with the current establishing of a Group of Governmental Experts which will explore the feasibility, scope and parameters of international standards and present its recommendations to the UN General Assembly in the summer of 2021. Before introducing the Anti-Torture Trade Framework, this report makes the case for regulation by presenting recent cases documented by Amnesty International and other sources, such as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, on the abuse of law enforcement equipment in detention and in the policing of public protest. For example, Amnesty International has been documenting guards using electric shock devices against Ethiopian migrants held in prisons in Saudi Arabia since March 2020. In other parts of the world, law enforcement officers have meted out beatings with batons both in detention and on the street in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burundi and Hong Kong; and abusively used restraints in China, Spain and the USA. The report then looks at efforts to control the trade in death penalty goods, which have restricted the use of pharmaceuticals used in lethal injection procedures in the USA. While trade controls relate to state obligations, this does not absolve companies of their own responsibilities to respect all human rights, including freedom from torture and other ill-treatment, wherever they operate. The report analyses the role of companies in the trade and the lack of transparency in the way they operate, and it cites good-practice examples of companies taking proactive human rights due-diligence initiatives to prevent their products from being misused. The final chapter surveys the advances that have been made towards regional and potentially global instruments to control the trade in the ‘tools of torture’ and goods used to carry out the death penalty, before presenting the Anti-Torture Trade Framework. Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation are urging states to use the Anti-Torture Trade Framework to: • introduce regulations or strengthen existing national controls on the trade in goods used for capital punishment, torture or other forms of ill-treatment; • aid the development of regional and international instruments in this area, including through the current UN process. Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation support the creation of a global, legally binding instrument to regulate the trade in torture and death penalty goods. National measures, though vital, will not be sufficient to ensure that law enforcement agencies engaged in torture and other illtreatment do not continue to receive law enforcement equipment and related goods imported from countries lacking effective national trade controls. Concerted action by states working in cooperation with partners through sub-regional and regional organizations to develop common standards can help to combat such activities, while the ongoing process in the UN provides all states the unique opportunity to establish international standards in this area for the first time. 6 ENDING THE TORTURE TRADE THE PATH TO GLOBAL CONTROLS ON THE ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ Amnesty International | Omega Research Foundation