Omega, together with the other members of the United Against Torture Consortium (UATC), as part of a public consultation process, has welcomed the European Commission’s recent proposals to significantly strengthen the EU Anti-Torture Regulation. Adopted in 2005 and binding on all 27 EU Member States, the Regulation prohibits all trade in a list of inherently abusive goods that can only be used for torture and the death penalty, whilst controlling exports of a range of law enforcement equipment that can be readily misused for torture.
In response to technological developments, changes in the international market, and in the use and misuse of law enforcement equipment in third countries, the European Commission proposes adding hoods and blindfolds, leg irons, gang chains, lathis, sjamboks, weighted gloves, weighted batons, delivery mechanisms fitted to drones that disperse injurious amounts of chemical irritants, and fixed chemical irritant delivery mechanisms intended for use in prisons and other enclosed spaces, to the goods prohibited by the Regulation. The Commission also proposes adding further law enforcement equipment including leg cuffs, malodorants, single kinetic impact projectiles and associated launchers, ammunition containing multiple projectiles and multi-barrel launchers onto the list of goods whose export is controlled under the Regulation. Omega and other UATC members have previously documented the promotion, trade and use of many of these items by law enforcement bodies including in torture, other ill-treatment and inappropriate use of force.
Read the full Submission here.