As the culmination of two semester’s work, in May the Clinic convened an expert roundtable and hosted a public event on torture-free trade with the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Governance Centre. A summary of the public event and video are available below.
Editor’s Note: the following was originally published by the Geneva Graduate Institute.
July 8 2024 – This public event addressed the misuse of standard policing equipment, such as tear gas, batons, and rubber bullets, in human rights violations, including the repression of protests and excessive force during arrests.
On 17 May 2024, the Global Governance Centre and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic co-hosted a public event to discuss how a Torture-Free Trade Treaty could effectively achieve its goals. The speakers outlined the human rights risks posed by various types of law enforcement equipment and proposed how the treaty could create robust processes for states to manage these risks through export controls. Additionally, they explored potential institutional arrangements for the treaty, such as reporting requirements and the establishment of an international body to monitor states’ compliance, to ensure the treaty’s effectiveness.
The public event addressed the misuse of standard policing equipment, such as tear gas, batons, and rubber bullets, in human rights violations, including the repression of protests and excessive force during arrests. The speakers highlighted the lack of international regulation on the trade of such equipment, which allows it to be easily acquired by police forces with poor human rights records.
Civil society groups, in collaboration with supportive states, are pushing for a “Torture-Free Trade Treaty” with two main goals: regulating the international trade of law enforcement equipment to account for human rights risks through targeted export controls, and establishing an international ban on equipment that serves no legitimate policing purpose, such as spiked batons and direct electric shock devices.
The event concluded with a Q&A session.
SPEAKERS
- Andrew Clapham – Geneva Graduate Institute
- Anna Crowe – Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic
- Asger Kjærum – International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims
- Rebecca Shaw – Omega Research Foundation
MODERATORS
- Nico Krisch – Geneva Graduate Institute
- Ezgi Yildiz – California State University, Long Beach & Geneva Graduate Institute