1. USE OF ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ ININ CUSTODIAL SETTINGS CUSTODIAL SETTINGS A wide variety of restraints, “less lethal” weapons and other equipment is traded around the world, provisioning police forces, other security agencies and places of detention. While some of this equipment can be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes, this is not always the case. The following chapters bring together a sample of recent cases from all regions of the abusive use of such equipment for torture or other ill-treatment in both custodial and non-custodial contexts, and end by looking at the issue of controls on dual-use pharmaceuticals used to carry out the death penalty. 1.1 INHERENTLY ABUSIVE EQUIPMENT Certain types of equipment, such as spiked batons, thumb-cuffs and body-worn electric shock devices, should be considered inherently abusive under the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) or international standards on policing and detention.2 Consequently, all states should prohibit the manufacture, promotion, import, export, transit and use of such equipment as repeatedly reiterated by the biennial UN General Assembly resolution on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, most recently adopted in 2019.3 Unfortunately despite existing state obligations, human rights organizations have documented employment of such equipment for torture and other ill-treatment. 1.1.1 DIRECT CONTACT ELECTRIC SHOCK WEAPONS Due to their intrinsic nature and design, direct contact electric shock weapons and devices carry an unacceptable risk of arbitrary force. The electric shock from these weapons and devices is applied directly by hand, as they are pressed against an individual, causing intense localized pain but generally not incapacitating the person. The ability to apply extremely painful electric shocks at the push of a button, and to repeatedly do this without long-lasting identifiable physical traces, makes these weapons a favored tool of torture or other ill-treatment. UN and regional torture monitors, Amnesty International and other non-governmental anti-torture organizations have documented incidents of electric-shock abuse in all regions of the world. 2 3 See in particular UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, 27 August-7 September 1990, www. ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/useofforceandfirearms.aspx; Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977, www.unodc.org/pdf/criminal_justice/UN_Standard_Minimum_Rules_for_the_Treatment_of_Prisoners.pdf; UN, Guidance on less lethal weapons in law enforcement, HR/PUB/20/1, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CCPR/LLW_Guidance.pdf UNGA, Resolution 74/143. Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, UN Doc. A/RES/74/143. ENDING THE TORTURE TRADE THE PATH TO GLOBAL CONTROLS ON THE ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ Amnesty International | Omega Research Foundation 7