UNITED NATIONS, December 23 (IPS) – Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as soon as made a highly-debatable distinction between “pleasant” right-wing “authoritarian” regimes (which had been largely U.S. and Western allies) and “unfriendly” left-wing “totalitarian” dictatorships (which the U.S. abhorred).
Across the identical time, successive U.S. administrations had been cozying as much as a rash of authoritarian regimes, largely within the Center East, broadly accused of instituting emergency legal guidelines, detaining dissidents, cracking down on the press, torturing political prisoners and rigorously imposing demise penalties.
Kirkpatrick’s distinction between user-friendly right-wing regimes and unfriendly left-wing dictators prompted a sarcastic response from her ideological foe at the moment, former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who shot again: “It appears to me that should you’re on the rack (and being tortured), it doesn’t make any distinction in case your torturer is right-handed or left-handed.”
Final month, the UN Particular Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, warned that rigorous oversight of safety and policing commerce gala’s is important to stop prohibited and inherently abusive legislation enforcement gear hitting the market after such objects had been discovered on show at Milipol 2025, an arms and safety commerce honest held in Paris from 18 to 21 November.
“Direct-contact electrical shock gadgets, a number of kinetic affect projectiles and multi-barrel launchers trigger pointless struggling and must be banned,” Edwards stated. “Their commerce and promotion needs to be prohibited throughout all 27 EU Member States and globally.”
Below the EU Anti-Torture Regulation – first launched in 2006 and strengthened in 2019 – firms are banned from selling, displaying or buying and selling sure gear that can be utilized for torture or ill-treatment. In 2025, the EU additional expanded the checklist of prohibited and managed legislation enforcement objects, in keeping with a UN press launch.
Dr. Simon Adams, President and CEO of the Heart for Victims of Torture (CVT), the most important worldwide group that treats survivors and advocates for an finish to torture worldwide, advised IPS as the most important torture rehabilitation group on the planet, the Heart for Victims of Torture helps the Particular Rapporteur and the marketing campaign to cease firms advertising and marketing, selling and promoting items which can be designed solely to inflict human struggling.
Torture is a criminal offense underneath worldwide legislation and is against the law all over the place and always. Firms shouldn’t be in a position to market and commerce items which can be routinely abused by safety forces to commit human rights violations, or don’t have any goal apart from to inflict torture, he stated.
“At CVT we work with traumatized survivors of torture daily. Many are refugees who’ve come from nations the place safety forces use the type of gadgets that had been on sale on the honest. The European Union has been a key associate within the marketing campaign to determine torture-free commerce.”
“It’s unconscionable that firms are allowed to advertise these merchandise contained in the EU. It’s grotesque that such merchandise even exist. This commerce in human cruelty needs to be fully banned,” declared Dr Adams.
A variety of kit beforehand recognized by the UN Particular Rapporteur as “inherently abusive” had been on show on the honest. Offending gear discovered on show or being promoted included direct-contact electrical shock weapons (batons, gloves and stun weapons), spiked anti-riot shields, ammunition with a number of kinetic affect projectiles, and multi-barrel launchers, in keeping with the UN.
These merchandise had been marketed by Brazilian, Chinese language, Czech, French, Indian, Israeli, Italian, Kazakh, North Macedonian, South Korean, Turkish and US firms.
Among the many new banned objects underneath EU legislation are aerial programs that ship “injurious portions of riot management brokers,” but firms had been selling drones fitted with multi-barrel launchers able to dispersing giant portions of chemical irritants.
After Milipol organisers had been notified of the objects, swift motion was taken, demanding firms take away catalogue pages and objects. Edwards stated one state-owned firm refused to conform and its stall was shut down.
“The continued promotion of inherently abusive weapons underscores the pressing want for States to undertake my 2023 report suggestions,” the professional stated.
Whereas welcoming latest EU steps to strengthen controls, Edwards confused that regional motion alone is inadequate.
“The discoveries made at Milipol present why a worldwide, legally binding Torture-Free Commerce Treaty is important,” the UN Particular Rapporteur stated. “With out coordinated worldwide regulation, abusive gear will merely discover new markets, new routes and new victims.”
She urged all organisers of safety, defence and policing exhibitions worldwide to determine strong monitoring, implement bans persistently, and cooperate absolutely with impartial investigators.
“Milipol’s response was swift and accountable,” the professional stated. “However the truth that banned objects had been exhibited in any respect exhibits that fixed vigilance is important.”
Edwards had raised these points on earlier events and can proceed to watch related developments.
Alice Jill Edwards is the Particular Rapporteur on torture and different merciless, inhuman or degrading therapy or punishment.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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