An Amnesty International France and Omega Research Foundation investigative team discovered Chinese companies marketing illegal law enforcement equipment capable of inflicting torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, at Milipol, a military and police trade fair taking place this week in Paris.
The import and export of a range of torture equipment has been banned throughout the EU since 2006 under the EU Anti-Torture Regulation. In 2019, the EU strengthened this Regulation to ban promotion and display of torture equipment at trade fairs.
The Amnesty International and Omega researchers were granted access to monitor Milipol by the trade fair’s organisers, Civipol and Comexposium, to ensure that no participating companies were breaching existing EU law. Amnesty and Omega acknowledge the measures that the fair organisers have put in place to comply with existing French and EU law. As a minimum, the organisers of all arms and security equipment trade fairs should introduce similar measures. Amnesty and Omega have raised their findings with Milipol’s exhibit control office.
The research team found four Chinese companies promoting illegal equipment, including, spiked batons, thumbcuffs, leg fetters, leg fetters with attached handcuffs, and spiked arm guards in their marketing materials.
The EU has led the way in law banning torture equipment. It is now crucial to ensure such law is fully implemented.
Dr Michael Crowley of the Omega Research Foundation
“The EU has led the way in law banning torture equipment. It is now crucial to ensure such law is fully implemented. This requires vigilance and swift action by States, trade fair organisers and civil society. The Amnesty/Omega discovery of materials marketing illegal Chinese torture equipment and Milipol’s action to remove it is an example of good practice, which should be employed at other trade fairs. Yet more now needs to be done to strengthen existing EU law. said Dr Michael Crowley of the Omega Research Foundation.”
Moreover, the research team also found marketing of a further range of equipment identified as inherently abusive by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. This included direct contact electric shock stun guns, stun batons and stun gloves, electric shock batons, electric shock stun guns, electric shock gloves, ammunition containing multiple kinetic impact projectiles (KIPs) and multi-barrel KIP launchers marketed for sale by Chinese, Czech, French, Italian, South Korean, Turkish and US companies.
At present the EU Anti-Torture Regulation does not prohibit the promotion and trade in a range of inherently abusive equipment that Amnesty and Omega have called to be banned, including direct contact electric shock weapons, multiple kinetic impact projectiles and multi-barrel KIP launchers. Therefore, “We urge the French Government and the EU to end such practices, to ensure that companies are not allowed to profit from the trade in goods used to cause human suffering. A vital first step would be to strengthen the EU Anti Torture Regulation so that it is in line with the UN Special Rapporteur’s recommendations. The long-term solution is an international Torture-Free Trade Treaty.” said Dr Michael Crowley.
“Unlike with conventional weapons there are no legally binding global rules governing the production and trade in law enforcement equipment” said Aymeric Elluin from Amnesty International France. “Inherently abusive law enforcement equipment has not been identified and explicitly prohibited. This is how equipment like the ones we have discovered on the Fair, that can have no other purpose than to inflict torture, is still being manufactured, promoted and supplied to police and security forces all over the world. And this is also why we need a robust Torture-Free Trade Treaty that would prohibit inherently abusive law enforcement equipment, and introduce strict, human rights-based controls over the trade in law enforcement equipment that is often used for torture or other ill-treatment.”
In October 2023 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards, called on all States to ban the manufacture, promotion and trade of 20 types of law enforcement equipment she considered as being inherently abusive, they include items discovered this week by the Amnesty and Omega researchers.
“Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation call on France and the EU to strengthen the EU Anti Torture Regulation by expanding the range of its prohibited goods, informed by the UN Special Rapporteur’s recent recommendations. At a minimum the EU Anti-Torture Regulation’s prohibited goods list should be expanded to include all direct contact electric shock weapons, ammunition containing multiple kinetic impact projectiles and multi-barrel KIP launchers. Such changes would consequently outlaw the manufacture, promotion and trade of these goods across the 27 EU Member States.
Background
Full list of inherently abusive equipment that Amnesty International and Omega researchers discovered being promoted at Milipol 2023:
Goods prohibited under the EU Anti-Torture Regulation
Spiked batons, thumbcuffs, leg fetters, leg fetters with attached handcuffs and spiked arm shields promoted by Chinese companies
Goods prohibited by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture that are not currently prohibited under the EU Anti-Torture Regulation
- Direct contact electric shock batons promoted by a Chinese company
- Direct contact electric shock gloves promoted by a French company
- Direct contact electric shock stun guns promoted by a Czech company
- Ammunition containing multiple kinetic impact projectiles promoted by Czech, French, Italian, Turkish, and US companies
- Multi-barrel launchers that can fire multiple kinetic impact projectiles promoted by French, South Korean and US companies
EU governments introduced Regulation (EC) 1236/2005 (the EU Anti-Torture Regulation) which concerns the “trade in goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. It came into effect on 31 July 2006.
The lists of prohibited and controlled goods are set out in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 775/2014 and were amended by Regulation (EU) 2016/2134 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Regulation (EU) 2016/2134 which was adopted on 16 December 2016 and strengthens the 2005 text.
Consolidated version: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1497343656144&uri=CELEX:02005R1236-20170317
Under the EU Anti-Torture Regulation, there is an explicit ban on advertising prohibited (Annex II) equipment at trade fairs and exhibitions in the EU, and a further ban on purchasing advertising space/time (including online) for such goods.
In October 2023 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards, presented the UN General Assembly with her “Study on the global trade in weapons, equipment and devices used by law enforcement and other public authorities that are capable of inflicting torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
In this ground-breaking study, the UN Special Rapporteur identifies 20 types of law enforcement equipment which are inherently abusive and should be prohibited and a further 17 types of law enforcement equipment that can have a legitimate use but can be misused for torture and whose trade must be strictly controlled.