INCLO joins coalition of human rights NGOs in signing the Shoreditch Declaration for a Torture-Free Trade Treaty

More than 30 international organizations including Omega Research Foundation, Amnesty International and numerous INCLO members and partners have joined forces to call for an international treaty to control the trade in tools of torture used to suppress peaceful protests and abuse detainees around the world.

We, a group of over 30 civil society organizations from all regions, are coming together to support the creation of a robust torture-free trade treaty.

Through our work dedicated to the prevention of torture and other ill-treatment and ending police violence, we witness daily the devastating psychological and physical toll that such abuse has on people across the world.

In many cases, the use of law enforcement equipment plays a fundamental role in these acts of cruelty, repression and punishment.

Internationally traded law enforcement equipment is routinely used abusively against protesters, human rights defenders and discriminated-against groups, among others, during the policing of protests and in places of detention.

Some equipment, like body-worn electric shock devices, is cruel and degrading by design and must be banned outright; other equipment can be readily abused and its trade must be strictly regulated.

A global, legally binding prohibition and human-rights-focused trade control regime on law enforcement equipment must be established to help prevent torture and other ill-treatment and combat police abuse. We support prohibitions on the manufacture and trade in inherently abusive equipment such as inhumane restraints and electric shock batons.

We also support effective, human-rights-based trade controls on standard law enforcement equipment – such as pepper spray, rubber bullets and handcuffs – which is often used to commit acts of torture or other ill-treatment.

We call on all states to fulfil their positive obligations to prevent and eradicate torture and other ill-treatment across the world by supporting the creation of a torture-free trade treaty. We will work together in different regions to raise awareness around this issue and build support for the strongest possible global treaty to put an end to the torture trade.