We don't agree. Anyone selling equipment prone to abuse by torturers has a special obligation to make sure it doesn't wind up in the hands of people with a record of human rights abuses. However, what is clear from our brief survey of some of the equipment makers and suppliers is that a corporate liability system will not adequately address the problem. The companies are too small and diffuse to be controlled exclusively through such mechanisms. One that closes today can reopen tomorrow under another name.
Governmental regulation is essential.
Amnesty International is urging the United States and other governments to ban the use, manufacture, promotion and trade of police and security equipment whose use is inherently cruel, inhuman or degrading. The group includes leg irons, electro-shock stun belts and inherently painful devices such as serrated thumbcuffs in this category. Amnesty is calling for a suspension on the use and trade in devices, such as electro-shock equipment, whose medical effects are not fully known. Amnesty is also calling for a suspension of trade in equipment that has shown a substantial risk of abuse or unwarranted injury, including equipment such as legcuffs, thumbcuffs, restraint chairs and pepper gas weapons. It is crucially important that the United States act immediately in these areas, says Amnesty International USA spokesperson Alistair Hodgett.