The UN's Special Rapporteur on torture has called for an end to the lucrative global trade in equipment and weapons used as instruments of torture.
Speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York today, Dr Alice Jill Edwards said she had drawn up a list of 20 "inherently torturous" items that are being used by public authorities in almost all regions of the world.
"In other words, they've been designed purely with purpose to inflict unnecessary or excessive harm on individuals, and they have no legitimate law enforcement or other purpose that couldn't be achieved by another instrument that is also available," she told RTÉ News.
"These are de facto modern-day torture tools as horrifying as the racks and thumb screws favoured by torturers in medieval Europe," she said.
The Special Rapporteur, who was in New York to deliver her findings to a UN committee, said the trade in equipment used for law enforcement and other public functions that can be used for torture is estimated to be worth $18 billion projected to rise by 8% every year to $27bn by 2028.
The growth in the market is driven by the rise in public discontent and protests while a growing number of states are also producing torture tools for use in their own country, according to the Special Rapporteur’s report.
There is currently no UN treaty to regulate the trade in instruments of torture.
Dr Edwards said that items on her list included a range of restraints from cage beds and interrogation restraints, known as "tiger chairs".
Her list includes thumb screws, some with serrated edges, that can "easily fracture the fine bones of the hands", spiked batons that break open the skin, as well as weighted gloves which dramatically increase the force of an impact and which, she told reporters, can cause excessive pain.
Dr Edwards also described belts that are strapped to individuals in courtrooms and "they are electrocuted from the other side of the room if they would become restless".
"One of the most disturbing parts of my list was a weapon called a 'millimetre wave weapon,’ used for crowd control," Dr Edwards told RTÉ News.
"It will heat the uppermost layer of the skin, causing unbearable pain so people will want to flee the scene, but they don’t know where the charge is coming from, what's causing this burning of the skin," she said.
She said the health impacts of this technology had not been assessed fully by the companies that are manufacturing and developing it.
The Special Rapporteur’s research found that more than 335 companies based in 54 countries were engaged in the manufacturing or selling of equipment on her prohibited list.
A total of 146 were based in Asia, 76 in Europe and 71 in North America.
Companies and member states should not be allowed to "profit off human suffering," Dr Edwards told RTÉ News.
"They need to also understand their international obligations, which would hopefully reduce the research and development into some of these egregious items," she added.
