Omega Research Foundation ‘non-lethal weapons’.253 While some less lethal equipment has a legitimate law enforcement equipment when used correctly, this term ignores the fact that equipment such as chemical irritants, kinetic impact projectiles and electric shock devices have led to deaths and serious injuries. Referring to less lethal ammunition and the weapons used to fire such ammunition as ‘non-lethal’ could also lead to a failure to implement control mechanisms established under national and international law for this equipment, in spite of it meeting the definitions laid out in those instruments (see, for example, CIFTA). Although the international norms emanating from both regional and global intergovernmental organisations aimed at controlling the transfer of most types of conventional military weapons and munitions cover some weapons used for law enforcement purposes, other types of equipment are often not covered. The European Union (EU) is the only inter-governmental body to have made significant progress towards filling some of these gaps. In 2006, following sustained advocacy by Amnesty International and Omega, the EU – through a European Commission (EC) Regulation - introduced the world’s first multilateral trade controls to prohibit the international trade in equipment ‘which has no practical use other than for the purposes of capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’; and to control the trade in a range of law enforcement and security equipment abused to violate human rights.254 The EC Regulation covers the trade of 28 EU member states and introduced unprecedented, binding controls on a range of equipment not usually included on EU member states’ military or dualuse export control lists, including most of the equipment mentioned in this report. While this instrument has been crafted for a specific region, it may be a useful source of information for identifying gaps in existing regional and national control regimes. 253 For example, article 5 (a) of the Use of Force Guidelines for the Ecuadorian national Police [Acuerdo Ministerial 4472 de fecha 10 de julio de 2014] categorises chemical irritants and conducted energy devices as non-lethal weapons; the Colombian Manual for the Police Serivce on the Care, Management and Control of Crowds [Manual para el servicio de policía en la atención, manejo y control de multitudes] classifies equipment including 37/38 mm kinetic impact ammunition which fires multiple projectiles as non-lethal, as well as various types of chemical irritant grenades and ammunition. 254 EC Torture Regulation, note 165. 58