Governments must tackle the "pain merchants"

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE

AI Index: POL 30/026/2003 (Public)
News Service No: 262

Governments must tackle the "pain merchants"

Governments' failure to control the expanding trade in and use of security
equipment is contributing to the incidence of torture and ill-treatment,
reveals Amnesty International in its new report The Pain Merchants
published today.

The latest research by the human rights organization highlights how a
wide range of police and prison services are misusing old technologies and
being encouraged to use new ones despite a lack of rigorous testing to
establish if they are consistent with international human rights standards:

· Steel batons with spikes have been offered for sale at a police
equipment fair in China.

· A metal and plastic projectile fired by a police officer permanently
injured a woman in Switzerland in March this year, leaving fragments in her
face which cannot be removed for fear of paralysis. This occurred before
any other means of control had been attempted.

· More than nine tonnes of leg irons (an implement banned by UN rules
for the treatment of prisoners) were exported from the USA to Saudi Arabia
during 2002.

· Since the report went to press AI has discovered a South African
government tender notice of 31 October 2003 calling for bids for the supply
to the Department of Correctional Services of leg irons and belly chains,
as well as electronic riot shields.

· The UK government has authorised trials on Britain's streets of the
taser gun - which delivers a 50,000 volt electric shock through two darts
fired from a distance, or can also be used up close as a stun gun. In AI's
opinion it has yet to publish full medical tests on the taser's effects.

· Sedative chemical incapacitating agents such as the one which killed
more than 120 hostages when Russian security forces ended a siege in a
Moscow theatre last year should be banned unless it can be proved that
people will be protected from any indiscriminate or arbitrary effects.

"Just because security equipment may be described as 'less than
lethal' does not mean it cannot be abused, nor that it cannot injure or
kill, said Brian Wood, Amnesty Internationals expert on security equipment.
"We are extremely concerned that in many countries devices are being
authorised for use on the population without sufficient investigation of
their effects on human rights."

The USA, one of the largest manufacturers of electro-shock equipment,
is one of the few governments requiring export licences to be issued for
the transfer of electro-shock weapons. Yet during 2002 the US Department of
Commerce authorised the exports of equipment falling into a category that
includes electro-shock stun devices to 12 countries where its own State
Department had reported the persistent use of torture.

The Pain Merchants also reveals that the number of companies
manufacturing electro-shock weapons is increasing despite continued reports
of electro-shock torture across the world in 87 countries since 1990

For the period 1999-2003, there have been at least 59 manufacturers
of electro-shock weapons in 12 countries: Taiwan, China, South Korea, USA,
France, Israel, Russia, Brazil, Czech Republic, Mexico, Poland and South
Africa, according to Amnesty International. For the years 1990-1997 the
figure was 20 manufacturers.

Few governments properly control the manufacture, sale or export of
policing and security equipment. And with the few that do make an attempt,
the system does not seem to work.

The European Commission has drafted a Trade Regulation which if
implemented would ban the export from member states of equipment whose
primary practical purpose is torture (such as leg irons and stun belts);
and strictly control the export of equipment which the Commission considers
has a legitimate policing use but which can be used in torture (eg
electro-shock stun weapons, tear gas).

Amnesty International welcomes this move towards control, but is
concerned that the draft Trade Regulation should be strengthened. Several
items listed in the proposed EC Trade Regulation as having "legitimate" law
enforcement use are items which AI has found to be used for torture or
ill-treatment, and whose effects on human rights have been insufficiently
investigated - such as stun guns, taser guns and pepper spray. AI is
calling for these to be suspended pending rigorous independent
investigation.

Amnesty International is calling for:
1. A ban on the use, manufacture and transfer of equipment whose primary
use and design is torture or ill-treatment, such as electro-shock stun
belts, leg cuffs, serrated thumb cuffs and batons with spikes
2. A suspension on the use, manufacture and transfer of equipment
designed for security use but which evidence has shown can lend itself to
torture and ill-treatment, pending a rigorous and independent inquiry into
its effects - including electro-shock stun guns and tasers, and pepper
spray
3. A prohibition on the export and use of any equipment that may lend
itself to torture and other human rights abuses unless the receiving party
has established strict rules in line with international human rights
standards to regulate the use of it, such as tear gas, batons and
handcuffs.



BACKGROUND
· Amnesty International reported torture by police or security forces
in 106 countries last year.

· There are now at least 856 companies in 47 countries involved in the
manufacture or marketing of weapons described as being a "less than lethal"
alternative to firearms, many of which easily lend themselves to torture.



Public Document

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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web:
http://www.amnesty.org

The Pain Merchants: Security equipment and its use in torture and other ill-treatment

SummaryAI Index: ACT 40/008/2003

The prohibition on torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is absolute. Yet last year Amnesty International reported torture or other ill-treatment by security forces, police or other state authorities in 106 countries. As part of its efforts to help prevent torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International has campaigned to end the trade in equipment and technology which are ostensibly designed for security, but which in reality lend themselves to serious abuses of human rights.

All over the world, law enforcement agencies and security services use equipment that ranges from the simplest technology – batons and sticks – through equipment like handcuffs, tear gas, rubber bullets and electro-shock stun guns, to control crowds and restrain people alleged to have broken the law or to be posing an imminent threat to others.

Most crowd control technologies and restraint devices rely on the principle of containment through pain or physical restriction. This means that they are inherently open to abuse by law enforcers. Moreover, some technologies and devices have inherently abusive effects.

In the last thirty years, devices such as electro-shock stun guns, plastic baton rounds (plastic bullets) and disabling chemicals have been marketed to security forces as “less than lethal” equipment. As outlined in this report, Amnesty International has serious concerns, both about the medical effects of much of this equipment, and about its employment in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The term “less than lethal” does not necessarily mean that an item of equipment could not easily be lethal or easily lend itself to abuse. Amnesty International is concerned that some equipment, intended for use by law enforcement officers as a last resort instead of live ammunition, is instead being used in the first instance.

The market for security equipment is a growing international business. In 2003 the Omega Foundation in the United Kingdom identified some 856 companies in 47 countries which were active in the manufacture or marketing of equipment intended for crime control. Governments’ regulation of the sale and use of these products is often seriously lacking.

This report shows why the manufacture, use and transfer of security and police technologies needs more than ever to be strictly regulated by governments using common criteria based on international human rights and humanitarian standards. Amnesty International calls on governments to: Ban outright from use, manufacture, transfer and promotion all equipment the primary use of which is to commit human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian standards

Suspend the use, manufacture, transfer and promotion of any type of equipment where credible evidence has shown that it may inherently lend itself to human rights abuse, pending the outcome of a rigorous, independent and impartial inquiry into the use and effects of that type of equipment;

Prohibit the transfer and use of any type of equipment where credible evidence has shown that it may inherently lend itself to human rights abuse unless the receiving party has established rules (including mechanisms which enable the effective monitoring and observance of the rules) which regulate the eventual legitimate use of it and which are based upon international human rights and humanitarian law standards.As a result of mounting concern about the unregulated trade in these products, the European Union is moving towards control of the trade. In a welcome development, the European Commission has proposed a Trade Regulation which, if adopted by the European Union (EU), will ban the trading from member states to countries outside the EU of equipment designed for capital punishment or torture (including electro-shock belts, leg irons and thumbcuffs), and will require the strict control on trade of security equipment that is deemed to have legitimate uses but that can also lend itself to torture and abuse (including tear gas, electro-shock batons and stun guns).

In this report Amnesty International reveals that there are 57 companies in both existing member states of the EU and among the accession states due to join the EU, which have offered to sell, distribute, broker or manufacture stun weapons in the last three years. Although the current proposed list of equipment to be prohibited or controlled through this Regulation does not meet all the recommendations of Amnesty International as set out in this report, the proposed EC Trade Regulation is urgently needed and Amnesty International calls upon the Council of Ministers to adopt and strengthen this Regulation as soon as possible.

A UN General Assembly resolution in December 2001 called on governments to control the torture trade, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has now announced that he intends to propose to all UN Member States a trade ban and control system on such equipment similar to the proposed EC Regulation.

Increasingly global markets and the pressing demands for security in the context of the “war on terror” mean that the range of new security technologies is developing rapidly, often without regulation. Thus it is not enough to control existing products, but governments must also establish mechanisms to monitor and evaluate new security technologies consistent with international human rights and humanitarian standards.

This report summarizes a 90-page document (27,433 words), The Pain Merchants: Torture equipment and its use in torture and other ill-treatment (AI Index: ACT 40/008/2003) issued by Amnesty International on 2 December 2003. Anyone wishing further details or to take action on this issue should consult the full document. An extensive range of our materials on this and other subjects is available at http://www.amnesty.org .



INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT, 1 EASTON STREET, LONDON WC1X 0DW, UNITED KINGDOM

2 December 2003