European Union Significantly Strengthens Region-Wide Efforts to End the Torture Trade
31 July 2025
The United Against Torture Consortium (UATC) strongly welcomes today’s action by the European Union significantly strengthening its region wide measures preventing the transfer of law enforcement equipment to those who would use it for torture and other ill-treatment. This major overhaul of the EU Anti-Torture Regulation is a crucial part of the EU’s actions to prevent torture and other ill-treatment across the globe.
Adopted in 2005 and directly binding on all 27 EU Member States, the Regulation prohibits all trade in a list of inherently abusive goods that can only be used for torture and the death penalty (Annex II Goods), whilst controlling exports of a range of law enforcement equipment that can be readily misused for torture (Annex III Goods).
Over the past year, the EU has reviewed and today has significantly expanded the range of goods covered under the scope of the EU Regulation. Under today’s measures the EU has added hoods and blindfolds, leg irons, gang chains, lathis, sjamboks, weighted gloves, weighted batons, delivery mechanisms fitted to drones that disperse injurious amounts of chemical irritants, and fixed chemical irritant delivery mechanisms intended for use in prisons and other enclosed spaces, to the (Annex II) goods prohibited by the Regulation.
The EU has also added further law enforcement equipment including leg cuffs, malodorants, single kinetic impact projectiles and associated launchers, ammunition containing multiple kinetic impact projectiles, and multi-barrel launchers onto the Annex III list of goods whose export is controlled under the Regulation.
You can learn more about these different types of equipment on Omega’s website.
This significant expansion of the reach of the EU Regulation responds to changes, repeatedly documented by UATC and members of the Torture-Free Trade Network, in the range, technological sophistication, and patterns of use and misuse of law enforcement equipment around the world. As well as addressing the continuing use of restraints and other law enforcement equipment to torture and ill-treat detainees in prisons, police stations, detention centres and secure medical facilities, the new measures will now allow the EU States to more effectively regulate the export of a variety of less lethal weapons that are regularly misused in non-custodial contexts and so prevent their transfer to police and security forces who are likely to misuse them to repress and punish protest on the streets.
The strengthened EU Regulation also reflects and appears to respond to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture’s 2023 study into the global trade of law enforcement equipment used in torture and other ill-treatment. This UN study included lists of prohibited and controlled goods and many of these goods are now incorporated into the strengthened EU Regulation. The UATC now calls on the EU to further align with the UN Special Rapporteur’s study, in particular by prohibiting direct contact electric shock weapons, ammunition containing multiple kinetic impact projectiles, and multi-barrel launchers, and by controlling the export of police batons and handcuffs.
In addition to directly strengthening Torture-Free Trade measures in all EU Member States, the changes now set down an important new standard for States in other regions. This is particularly important as the Council of Europe, comprising 46 European States, is now reviewing and looking to strengthen its own Torture-Free Trade guidance. The EU changes will also hopefully encourage States beyond Europe to establish national controls or continue discussions towards similar regional measures that are for example taking place within the African Union. The UATC calls on the EU and individual EU Member States to advocate for and support the development and strengthening of such regional measures.
Finally, the EU Regulation changes are an important marker and impetus for continued international efforts by States through the Alliance for Torture Free-Trade and civil society through the Torture-Free Trade Network, to advocate for development of a legally binding International treaty. The UATC calls on the EU now to re-double its efforts through the Alliance, with other allied States and civil society to press for a UN mandated process to establish such a treaty.
For more information, please contact:
Dr Michael Crowley, Omega Research Foundation, at michael@omegaresearchfoundation.org
About the Consortium: The United Against Torture Consortium pools the strengths and expertise of six leading anti-torture organisations (IRCT, OMCT, FIACAT, APT, Omega Research Foundation, and REDRESS) in partnership with over 200 civil society organisations in more than 100 countries, to strengthen and expand the anti-torture movement. The European Union funds the project.
