Research Foundation has documented a company that has manufactured and promoted a restraint bracelet incorporating a single handcuff and a “stationary mount in the form of a rock bolt”. According to the company information, this restraint device “allows you to restrict freedom of movement” of the prisoner who will be “securely chained to the wall.” The company has also manufactured “Bouquet” bracelets for restraining up to five prisoners together that allows the “possibility of fixing [a] group … to a fixed support.” The company has claimed that both of these fixed restraints have been adopted by the “Interior Ministry [and] the Federal Border Service” of an East European state.14 PROHIBIT CAGE BEDS AND NET BEDS Image of cage bed (left) (© Volunteers at Kepep Institution); image of net bed (right) (taken from company promotional materials). Cage beds and net beds comprise a cage (four sides and a ceiling) or similar structure enclosing a human being within the confines of a bed, the ceiling or one or more of the sides of which are fitted with metal or other bars (in the case of cage beds) or fabric netting (in the case of net beds), and which can only be opened from outside. The Human Rights Committee, the expert UN body charged with overseeing the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), has called for a cessation of the use of cage beds, and has stated that their use “is considered an inhuman and degrading treatment of patients confined in psychiatric and related institutions”.15 The CPT in its revised standard-setting document of 2017 concerning “means of restraint in psychiatric establishments for adults”, stated that “the use of net (or cage) beds should be prohibited under all circumstances.”16 Certain countries, notably the Czech Republic, have previously employed net beds in psychiatric institutions despite CPT reports17 expressing serious misgivings about their use and calling for an end to such practices.18 14 For further details of the company and products see: “Manufacture, trade and use of ‘tools of torture’ in the Council of Europe”, Omega Research Foundation, June 2018. https://omegaresearchfoundation.org/sites/default/files/uploads/Publications/ORF%20 CoE%20Tools%20of%20Torture%20Report%20Revised%20June%202018%20FINAL_1.pdf 15 Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee, Slovakia, UN Doc. CCPR/CO/78/SVK, 22 August 2003, para. 13; Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee, Czech Republic, UN Doc. CCPR/C/CZE/CO/2 9 August 2007, para. 13. 16 CPT, Means of restraint in psychiatric establishments for adults (Revised CPT standards), CPT/Inf(2017)6, 21 March 2017. 17 CPT, Report to the Czech Government on the visit to the Czech Republic carried out by the CPT from 1 to 10 April 2014, CPT/Inf (2015) 18, 31 March 2015. 18 The risks linked with the use of net beds were illustrated by the case of a 51-year-old woman who died in a net bed at Dobřany Psychiatric Hospital in January 2012. According to the CPT, “The patient concerned was reportedly placed in a net-bed on the day of her admission to the hospital and, after having spent several hours therein, she tore the net and strangulated herself in the loop. Allegedly, this happened despite constant CCTV-coverage of the net-bed where the patient was placed.” CPT (31 March 2015) op. cit., para 170. COMBATING TORTURE: THE NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE REGULATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT EQUIPMENT Amnesty International | Omega Research Foundation 11