Support is growing for an “international instrument” aimed at curbing the trade in goods used for capital punishment and torture, according to the Alliance for Torture-Free Trade.
Cecilia Malmstrom during the ministerial meeting of the Alliance for Torture-Free Trade. PICTURE: © European Union, 2018 .
Formed last year as an initiative of Argentina, the EU and Mongolia, the alliance agreed this week to “step up” the pace of efforts towards the creation of a UN instrument, possibly a binding convention, to stop the trade in goods such as metal spiked batons, electric shock belts and chemicals used in executions as well as gas chambers and electric chairs.
More than 60 countries have now joined the alliance, commiting themselves to restricting exports of goods used in capital punishment and torture and to making it easier for customs authorities to track down shipments and identify new products. The latest five countries to do so include Australia, New Zealand, Cape Verde and Palau and Vanuatu.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström co-hosted the alliance’s first ministerial meeting at the United Nations in New York this week as national representatives gathered there for the UN General Assembly.
“Systematic use of torture is a crime against humanity…” she said. ”Torture is an instrument of fear and has no place in any society. We’ve come together with one voice to say that we will not stand for this trade – not in our countries, or anywhere else in the world.”
A joint communique was issued at the ministerial meeting in which the alliance called upon the UN Secretary-General to establish a group to examine the feasibility of options including the creation of a legally binding instrument to set common international standards for the “import, export and transfer of goods used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
