PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES HALT SUPPLY
OF DRUGS FOR LETHAL INJECTION
Some sectors, such as the pharmaceutical industry, have already
introduced due-diligence measures to prevent their goods from
being used to carry out lethal injection executions in countries
that employ this method of capital punishment, notably the USA.
Such due diligence measures have included monitoring the
distribution and use of their products, explicitly barring products
from being sold to correctional facilities, inserting clauses in
customer contracts barring use for the death penalty, auditing contract compliance and making strong
public statements against the use of their products for capital punishment.62
Other companies and sectors should follow this good practice. Companies producing law enforcement
equipment have at their disposal a range of measures to identify and address potential human rights
risks before, during and after a given transfer of goods. These include vetting clients’ past performance
against human rights benchmarks, building high expectations of compliance with international human
rights law into contracts, continuous monitoring and periodic auditing of client performance, and using
leverage to influence the behaviour of clients up to and including suspending or even ceasing the
business relationship where risks cannot be adequately mitigated.
However, many companies in the law enforcement equipment and weapons manufacturing and
promotion sector lack even rudimentary human rights policies. Companies contacted by Amnesty
International have incorrectly stated that it is not their responsibility to monitor the use of their goods or
decide on the suitability of export markets.63
62 Reprieve, Lethal Injection Information Centre contains a compilation of public statements made by pharmaceutical manufacturers,
distributors and outsourcing facilities on their opposition to the misuse of medicines for lethal injection executions, lethalinjectioninfo.
org/industry-statements/
63 See company responses to letters from Amnesty International in the methodology section of Tear Gas: an Investigation, teargas.
amnesty.org/#about Tippmann Sports, a manufacturer of “less lethal” launchers wrote in relation to alleged misuse of its products in
Istanbul, Turkey: “We abide by the rigorous debarment policies established by the United States of America government and rely on
the government to make determinations on the fitness of states to be able to receive such less lethal products… Tippmann cannot
monitor the use of its product in the field and as such does not collect any data on the injuries or deaths caused by its equipment.”
26
ENDING THE TORTURE TRADE THE PATH TO GLOBAL CONTROLS ON THE ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’
Amnesty International | Omega Research Foundation
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