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Stopping the torture trade
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Tech Inc. 29 In August 1999, information from South African
prison officials confirmed that a stun belt had begun to be used
at a maximum security prison in Pretoria during the
transportation of some prisoners.
The fear of infliction of severe pain in a setting of total
powerlessness is an important feature of torture or illtreatment.
A person to whom a stun belt is attached is in
constant fear of a severe shock being administered at any time,
without warning and for reasons over which he or she may have
no control. Their constant subjection to a police or prison
official who has the power to administer pain at will is
degrading. The fact that the stun belt allows shocks to be
administered by an officer who is some distance away makes it
especially prone to arbitrary use and to misuse as an instrument
of torture or ill-treatment.
AI believes that the use of stun belts constitutes cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment. The manufacture, transfer and
use of stun belts should be banned.
Failure to evaluate and monitor
Despite their growing use in an ever-greater number of
countries, and despite increasing evidence of the misuse of such
devices to torture and ill-treat, there has been no thorough,
independent and impartial evaluation of the effects of electroshock
stun equipment. 30 Virtually all companies which
manufacture and market electro-shock devices claim that they
are medically safe and non-lethal if used properly. But such
claims have been disputed by members of the medical
profession, human rights organizations and some police and
prison officials. The severe physical and mental pain,
indiscriminate effects and risk of death are often denied by
advocates of modern stun technology, but usually without
offering independent medical evidence. An assessment of real
law enforcement situations in different countries with differing
law enforcement records — rather than experiments in
controlled laboratory conditions — is necessary.
The observations of some security force officials who have
monitored the use of such equipment in real-life situations gives
serious cause for concern. In March 1999 Major Mark Kellar of