The UK's Implementation of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The UK's Implementation of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment The UK's Implementation of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Civil society alternative report March 2019 First published March 2019. All rights reserved. Materials may be freely disseminated and used for educational, activist and non-profit purposes, with due acknowledgment of the source. Otherwise, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of REDRESS. REDRESS 87 Vauxhall Walk London, SE11 5HJ United Kingdom www.redress.org @REDRESSTrust /theREDRESSTrust The UK implementation of the UN Convention against Torture Supporting organisations • Dr Simon Flacks, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Westminster This report has been endorsed by the 74 NGOs, civil • ECPAT UK (Every Child Protected Against Trafficking) society groups and individuals listed below. Not all of the organisations work across all areas addressed or necessarily • Freedom from Torture support all of the recommendations. • Freedom United • Action by Christians Against Torture • Friends, Families and Travellers • Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU) • Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group • Anti-Slavery International • Global Diligence LLP • Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group • Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of • Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) Children • Asylum Matters • Helen Bamber Foundation • Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy • Hestia • Bail for Immigration Detainees • Hope at Home • Birmingham Methodist District's Adavu Project • Howard League for Penal Reform • Black Country Women's Aid • Human Rights Implementation Centre • Caritas Bakhita House • Human Trafficking Foundation • Centre for Crime and Justice Studies • Imkaan • Changing Perspectives • INQUEST • Children in Wales • International Truth and Justice Project • Children’s Rights Alliance for England, part of Just for • Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants Kids Law • JUSTICE • Criminal Justice Alliance • Kalayaan • Dimensions • Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network • Disability Rights UK • Liberty • Disabled People Against Cuts • Medical Justice • Dr Elizabeth Stubbins Bates, Junior Research Fellow in • Mind Law, Merton College, University of Oxford 3 • National Survivor User Network • Sophie Hayes Foundation • Olallo Services, Saint John of God Hospitaller Services • Southall Black Sisters • Omega Research Foundation • Standing Committee for Youth Justice • Persons Against Non-State Torture • Stop Slavery Today • Prison Reform Trust • The AIRE Centre • Professor Gary Craig, Convenor, Co-Modern Slavery • The Challenging Behaviour Foundation Research Consortium, Professor of Social Justice, School • The Zahid Mubarek Trust of Law, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Chair, North East Race Equality Forum. • Wales Assembly of Women • Professor Nick Hardwick, Royal Holloway University of • West Midlands Anti Slavery Network London; Lutz Oette, Centre for Human Rights Law, SOAS, University of London; Par Engstrom, the UCL Institute • Women in Prison of the Americas; Tom Pegram, UCL Global Governance Institute, as conveners of the UK Prohibition of Torture • Women's Resource Centre Network's 2019 workshop: The UK Prison System: Compliance with International Human Rights Law. • Professor Ruth Blakeley (University of Sheffield) and Dr Sam Raphael (University of Westminster), Directors, The Rendition Project. • Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture • REDRESS • Refugee Action • Refugee Council • René Cassin • Reprieve • Rights Watch (UK) • Robin Brierly Consultancy • Room to Heal • Runnymede Trust • Shiva Foundation 4 The UK implementation of the UN Convention against Torture About this report • Hate crimes; • Redress; The United Kingdom (UK) ratified the UN Convention • The use of torture evidence; against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading • Accountability for allegations of torture overseas; Treatment or Punishment in 1988. • Safeguards against torture overseas; and States Parties are required to periodically report on the • Universal jurisdiction. measures they have taken to implement their obligations under the Convention. This report covers the situation in England and Wales. The situation in Northern Ireland and Scotland will be This report is submitted to the UN Committee against covered in other civil society reports. Torture as an alternative (or shadow) report to the UK’s sixth periodic report submitted in November 2017. Devolution The UK will be examined by the Committee in May 2019. The UK is made up of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This report follows four consultation events and a call for evidence across England and Wales as part of The UK Parliament remains responsible for legislating the UK Torture Review project in which over 90 civil in “reserved” matters, or areas which are not devolved society organisations and individuals participated in the which includes: foreign affairs, defence and national 2 consultations or provided written evidence to inform the security; macro-economic and fiscal matters. report. In Wales, the Government of Wales Act 2006 formally The report takes a thematic approach, based on the separated the National Assembly (legislature) and the information received and the List of Issues Prior to Welsh Assembly Government (executive). The National Reporting published by the Committee in June 2016.1 It Assembly for Wales has powers to pass laws in all the 3 4 is divided into the following chapters: devolved areas as set out in the 2006 Act. This includes: • The UK context; • Health and health services, including the promotion of health and the provision of health services; • Legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent torture or ill-treatment; • Social welfare, including social services, the protection and well-being of children and young adults, the care • Asylum and immigration; of children, young adults, vulnerable persons and older • Prisons and other forms of detention; persons, including care standards; • Policing, the use of equipment and the criminal • Housing, including homelessness; and justice system; • Education and training. • Other forms of deprivation of liberty and ill-treatment in health settings; There is no devolution in England. Devolved issues will • Ill-treatment of children; be indicated throughout the report. • Sexual and gender-based violence; • Human trafficking and modern slavery; 5 Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies REDRESS would like to thank the Equality and Human Rights Commission for its contribution in funding for The UK is responsible for the international relations and this project. The report does not necessarily reflect the defence of the fourteen British Overseas Territories5 and the Commission's views. three Crown Dependencies.6 British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies do not have the authority to About REDRESS become party to international treaties in their own right. The UK can extend the territorial scope of its ratification of REDRESS is an international human rights organisation treaties to include them, upon their request.7 that represents victims of torture to obtain justice and reparations. We bring legal cases on behalf of individual This report does not cover the situation in the British survivors, and advocate for better laws to provide Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. effective reparations. Our cases respond to torture as an individual crime in domestic and international law, as a Recommendations civil wrong with individual responsibility, and as a human rights violation with state responsibility. The recommendations in this report are addressed to the ‘UK’. This means the UK Government and the Welsh Through our victim-centred approach to strategic Government, where relevant and within their powers. litigation we can have an impact beyond the individual case to address the root causes of torture and to Unless otherwise stated, all recommendations are for challenge impunity. We apply our expertise in the law of the consideration of the Committee against Torture as torture, reparations, and the rights of victims, to conduct part of the UK’s state examination process. research and advocacy to identify the necessary changes in law, policy, and practice. We work collaboratively with Acknowledgments international and national organisations and grassroots victims' groups. This report has been produced by REDRESS with the support of a large number of organisations and individuals. We are very grateful to all those who submitted evidence for this report and participated in the consultation process. For a full list of organisations who contributed information please see our website (www.redress.org). We would like to gratefully acknowledge the members of the steering group responsible for producing this report. The steering group has representatives from: • Children in Wales • Children’s Rights Alliance for England • Disability Rights UK • Freedom from Torture • Liberty 6 The UK implementation of the UN Convention against Torture Acronyms Committee or UNCAT Committee The Committee against Torture CPT European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment CSO Civil Society Organisation ECHR European Convention on Human Rights ECtHR European Court of Human Rights EU European Union FCO Foreign
Recommended publications
  • Tainted Peace: Torture in Sri Lanka Since May 2009
    Tainted Peace: Torture in Sri Lanka since May 2009 in Sri Lanka Torture Peace: Tainted Tainted Peace: Torture in Sri Lanka since May 2009 Freedom from Torture August 2015 Torture Freedom from Freedom from Torture 111 Isledon Road London N7 7JW Registered charity no: England 1000340, Scotland SC039632 Freedom from Torture August 2015 Front cover photo: A Sri Lankan soldier stands in front of a war monument in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka. Back cover photo: A Tamil, who is a survivor of torture at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces, displays significant burns on his back. Photos: Will Baxter http://willbaxter.photoshelter.com Freedom from Torture Freedom from Torture is the only UK-based human rights organisation dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of torture survivors. We do this by offering services across England and Scotland to around 1,000 torture survivors a year, including psychological and physical therapies, forensic documentation of torture, legal and welfare advice, and creative projects. Since our establishment in 1985, more than 57,000 survivors of torture have been referred to us, and we are one of the world’s largest torture treatment centres. Our expert clinicians prepare medico-legal reports (MLRs) that are used in connection with torture survivors’ claims for international protection, and in research reports, such as this, aimed at holding torturing states to account. We are the only human rights organ- isation in the UK that systematically uses evidence from in-house clini- cians, and the torture survivors they work with, to hold torturing states accountable internationally; and to work towards a world free from torture.
    [Show full text]
  • Torture's Link to Profit in Sri Lanka, a Retrospective Review
    28 SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE Mercy for money: Torture’s link to profit in Sri Lanka, a retrospective review Wendell Block, M.D.,* Jessica Lee M.D.,* Kera Vijayasingham B.A.* between 1989 and 2013. We tallied the Key points of interest: number of incidents in which claimants • This paper supplements earlier studies described paying cash or jewelry to end on prevalence of bribe payments to end torture, and collected other associated data torture in Sri Lanka, adding trends such as demographics, organizations of the throughout the war, after the war, perpetrators, locations, and, if available, involving multiple armed organizations, amounts paid. We included torture perpe- and across wide geographic locations. trated by both governmental and nongovern- • Victims may not genuinely be consid- mental militant groups. Collected data was ered to be a security risk but are used for coded and evaluated. Findings: We found extortion. that 78 of the 95 subjects (82.1%) whose • Significant economic and social impact reported ordeals met the United Nations on families is likely. Convention Against Torture/International • Torture unlikely to stop until financial Criminal Court definitions of torture incentives are removed. described paying to end torture at least once. • High prevalence suggests that perpetra- 43 subjects paid to end torture more than tors act in collusion with their superiors once. Multiple groups (governmental and and benefit from impunity. non-governmental) practiced torture and extorted money by doing so. A middleman Abstract was described in 32 percent of the incidents. Background: The purpose of this retro- Payment amounts as reported were high spective study is to describe the pattern of compared to average Sri Lankan annual bribe taking in exchange for release from incomes.
    [Show full text]
  • “We Will Make You Regret Everything”
    “We will make you Torture in Iran since regret everything” the 2009 elections Freedom from Torture Country Reporting Programme March 2013 Freedom from Torture Country Reporting Programme March 2013 “We will make you regret everything” Torture in Iran since the 2009 elections “Why did this happen to me, what did I do wrong? ...They’ve made me hate my body to a point that I don’t want to shower or get dressed... I feel alone and can’t trust another person.” Case study - Sanaz, page 6 3 Table of Contents Summary and key findings ............................................................. 7 Key findings of the report .................................................................... 8 Recommendations .......................................................................... 10 Introduction ................................................................................... 11 Freedom from Torture’s history of working with Iranian torture survivors 11 Case sample and method ..................................................................... 11 1. Case Profile ............................................................................................ 12 a. Place of origin and place of residence when detained .................................. 12 b. Ethnicity and religious identity .............................................................. 12 c. Ordinary occupation .......................................................................... 13 d. History of activism or dissent ..............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • After Care of Those Who Have Been Exposed to PAVA (Captor) Spray Or Post Deployment of ‘Taser’ Device
    Document level: Trustwide (TW) Code: CP39 Issue number: 3 After care of those who have been exposed to PAVA (Captor) spray or post deployment of ‘taser’ device Lead executive Director of Nursing Therapies Patient Partnership Author and contact number Safety and Security Lead – 01244 397 618 Type of document Policy Target audience All inpatient staff The procedure is written in the event of CS Gas being used within Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP). It Document purpose provides guidance on the aftercare of those who have been affected by a CS contaminant. Document consultation Emergency Planning Sub Committee (EPSC) Approving meeting Patient Safety and Effectiveness Sub Committee 17-Feb-11 Ratification Document Quality Group (DQG) 8-Sep-11 Original issue date Apr-03 Implementation date Sep-11 Review date Sep-16 HR6 Trust-wide learning and development requirements including the training needs analysis (TNA) CWP documents to be read GR1 Incident reporting and management policy in conjunction with GR8 Security policy CP6 The management of violence and aggression (incorporating verbal threat to staff and offensive weapons) Training requirements There are no specific training requirements for this document. Financial resource No implications Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) Initial assessment Yes/No Comments Does this document affect one group less or more favourably than another on the basis of: Race No Ethnic origins (including gypsies and travellers) No Nationality No Gender No Culture No Religion or belief
    [Show full text]
  • Mprof Thesis
    Durham E-Theses Lives worthy of human dignity: investigating the impact of UK Asylum Policy on the well-being of asylum seekers in the North East of England. CARROLL, CHRISTINE How to cite: CARROLL, CHRISTINE (2013) Lives worthy of human dignity: investigating the impact of UK Asylum Policy on the well-being of asylum seekers in the North East of England., Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8444/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Lives worthy of human dignity: investigating the impact of UK Asylum Policy on the well-being of asylum seekers in the North East of England. Chris Carroll January 2013 Thesis submitted for the award of Master of Professional Practice School of Applied Social Sciences Durham University Declaration I, Chris Carroll, declare that this thesis is my own work and the material included has not previously been submitted for a degree at this or any other university.
    [Show full text]
  • Streptococcus Pneumoniae
    INVESTIGATIONS TO IRON LIMITATION IN STREPTOCOCCUS PNEUMONIAE I n a u g u r a l d i s s e r t a t i o n zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Greifswald vorgelegt von Juliane Hoyer geboren am 18.08.1988 in Potsdam Greifswald, den 18.12.2018 Dekan: Prof. Dr. Werner Weitschies 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Dörte Becher 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Jan Maarten van Dijl Tag der Promotion: 25.04.2019 Table of contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents ...................................................................................................................................................... I Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................................... V 1. Summary ............................................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Zusammenfassung .......................................................................................................................................... 3 3. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 7 3.1. Streptococcus pneumoniae ................................................................................................................... 7 3.1.1. Historical and general
    [Show full text]
  • Agents of Fear
    AGENTS OF FEAR THE NATIONAL SECURITY SERVICE IN SUDAN Amnesty International is a global movement of 2.8 million supporters, members and activists in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. Amnesty International Publications First published in 2010 by Amnesty International Publications International Secretariat Peter Benenson House 1 Easton Street London WC1X 0DW United Kingdom www.amnesty.org © Amnesty International Publications 2010 Index: AFR 54/010/2010 Original language: English Printed by Amnesty International, International Secretariat, United Kingdom All rights reserved. This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee for advocacy, campaigning and teaching purposes, but not for resale. The copyright holders request that all such use be registered with them for impact assessment purposes. For copying in any other circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, prior written permission must be obtained from the publishers, and a fee may be payable. Cover photo : A cell where detainees were held by the National Intelligence and Security Service in Nyala, Sudan. This photograph was taken in 2004 during a visit of
    [Show full text]
  • The Terror Trade Times, June 2001
    The Terror Trade Times AI Index: ACT 31/002/2001 June 2001 Page 5 Colombia: Stoking the fires of conflict Pages 6-7 USA — market leader in the torture trade Page 8 Excessive force in Israel and the Occupied Territories Page 10 ‘Balkans Syndrome’ The threat of depleted uranium weapons Page 4 — Sirre Leone: a bloody trade Page 9 — Supplying the torturers in Saudi Arabia Page 11 — Arms flyers in Africa Selling out human rights Governments set to ignore human rights at UN Small Arms Conference Thousands of people worldwide are killed every year by weapons categorized as “small arms” or “light weapons” — handguns, assault rifles, sub-machine and machine-guns, grenades, mortars, shoulder-fired missiles and landmines. Many more are injured. Most of the victims are unarmed civilians who find themselves in the path of rival armies or criminal gangs. Transnational networks of brokers, dealers, financiers and transporters are the key players in small arms markets, yet most states do not even register them, let alone require each of their deals to be licenced. In response to the scale of the problem, the United Nations (UN) is convening an international conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects in July 2001. The aim of the conference is to agree a UN Programme of Action containing recommendations to governments. Amnesty International welcomes this initiative, which should provide an important opportunity for developing an international program of action to address the proliferation and misuse of small arms. However, the UN draft Programme of Action which will be put to the conference does not even mention some of the key contexts in which small arms are used to cause suffering on a massive scale.
    [Show full text]
  • Ending the Torture Trade: the Path to Global Controls On
    ENDING THE TORTURE TRADE THE PATH TO GLOBAL CONTROLS ON THE ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. The Omega Research Foundation (Omega) is an independent UK-based research organisation. We are dedicated to providing rigorous, objective, evidence-based research on the manufacture, trade in, and use of, military, security and police technologies. © Amnesty International 2020 Cover image: © Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto/Getty Images Except where otherwise noted, content in this document is licensed under a Creative Commons (attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives, international 4.0) licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode For more information please visit the permissions page on our website: www.amnesty.org Where material is attributed to a copyright owner other than Amnesty International this material is not subject to the Creative Commons licence. First published in 2020 by Amnesty International Ltd Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW, UK Index: ACT 30/3363/2020 Original language: English amnesty.org CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 1. USE OF ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ IN CUSTODIAL SETTINGS 7 1.1 INHERENTLY ABUSIVE EQUIPMENT 7 1.1.1 DIRECT CONTACT ELECTRIC SHOCK WEAPONS 7 1.1.2 ABUSIVE RESTRAINTS 9 1.2 EQUIPMENT WITH A LEGITIMATE FUNCTION 11 1.2.1 KINETIC IMPACT WEAPONS: BATONS AND TRUNCHEONS 11 1.2.2 RESTRAINTS 13 1.2.3 CHEMICAL IRRITANTS 13 2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of a Torture Survivor Specific Measure of Change
    19 SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE Measuring change and changing measures: The development of a torture survivor specific measure of change Rebecca Horn, PhD, Andy Keefe* Abstract included in the clinical outcome tool. A Freedom from Torture is a UK-based process of discussion and testing of potential human rights organisation dedicated to the approaches led to the development of a draft treatment and rehabilitation of torture clinical outcome tool which was translated survivors. The organisation has been into 15 languages and then pilot tested with working towards the development of a 151 clients. clinical outcome tool for a number of years, The data from the pilot study was and the purpose of this paper is to (a) analysed and used to produce the final describe the process of developing the tool version of the clinical outcome tool. The and the final tool itself, and (b) to outline clinical outcome tool was formally rolled out the system which Freedom from Torture has across the organisation’s five centres in April established to collect, record and analyse the 2014. Clinicians working with adult clients data produced. have been completing it at the beginning of A review of the literature revealed that therapy and then again at regular intervals. existing measures were not appropriate for The data from the first year is currently measuring psychological and emotional being analysed, and the experiences of change amongst torture survivors; therefore clinicians, clients and interpreters of using the organisation undertook to develop a tool the clinical outcome tool are being reviewed, specifically designed for this target group. with a view to continuing to develop and The clinical outcome tool was developed improve the tool and the processes by which collaboratively by Freedom from Torture it is used.
    [Show full text]
  • Trustees' Annual Report and Financial Statements
    TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2018 Freedom from Torture OUR VISION IS A WORLD FREE FROM TORTURE. IN A WORLD WHERE TORTURE STILL EXISTS, WE AIM TO ENSURE THAT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF SURVIVORS ARE RESTORED THROUGH REHABILITATION AND PROTECTION. WE FIGHT TO ENSURE THAT STATES RESPONSIBLE FOR TORTURE ARE HELD TO ACCOUNT. MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF TRUSTEES Our patron Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu describes the user engagement and survivor activism rooted in "lived experience". African concept of Ubuntu as a shared and common humanity We are thinking now about how we can support others to embrace summed up by the phrase “I am because you are”. A person with more participative methods and shift the balance of power towards Ubuntu is one with self-assurance who is open, available to others beneficiaries. We know that this engagement will also enrich our and affirms them. own practice through the benefits of mutual exchange. This sums up the ethos and values of Freedom from Torture – a I am very proud that we are playing a leading role in efforts to place of refuge, healing and hope rooted in respect for universal demonstrate how "hostile environment" policies in the UK are human rights, where we strive to be open, available, confident and impacting on asylum seekers and refugees including torture affirming while always being ready to listen and learn. survivors. This year also saw the publication of some immensely powerful research that put survivors’ voices and calls for change at Last year, our CEO Sonya Sceats led a huge exercise to review and the fore.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Response to the Director-General's Request
    OPCW Scientific Advisory Board Twenty-Fifth Session SAB-25/WP.1 27 – 31 March 2017 27 March 2017 ENGLISH only RESPONSE TO THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL'S REQUEST TO THE SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD TO PROVIDE CONSIDERATION ON WHICH RIOT CONTROL AGENTS ARE SUBJECT TO DECLARATION UNDER THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION 1. Response to the Director-General’s Request to the Scientific Advisory Board to Consider Which Riot Control Agents are Subject to Declaration Under the Chemical Weapons Convention (hereinafter “the Convention”). Annex: Response to the Director-General’s Request to the Scientific Advisory Board to Consider Which Riot Control Agents are Subject to Declaration Under the Chemical Weapons Convention. CS-2017-0268(E) distributed 27/03/2017 *CS-2017-0268.E* SAB-25/WP.1 Annex page 2 Annex RESPONSE TO THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S REQUEST TO THE SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD TO CONSIDER WHICH RIOT CONTROL AGENTS ARE SUBJECT TO DECLARATION UNDER THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 This report provides advice from the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) on which riot control agents (RCAs) would be subject to declaration under the Convention in response to a request by the Director-General at the Board’s Twentieth Session in June 2013 [1]. The request appears in Appendix 1. 1.2 The SAB considered a list of 59 chemicals that included the 14 chemicals declared as RCAs since entry into force of the Convention; chemicals identified as potential RCAs from a list of “riot control agents and old/abandoned chemical weapons” to be considered for inclusion in the OPCW Chemical Agent Database (OCAD) that had been drafted by the SAB’s Temporary Working Group (TWG) on Analytical Procedures in 2001 (Appendix 2) [2]; an initial survey conducted by the Technical Secretariat in 2013 of RCAs that have been researched or are available for purchase, beyond those that are already declared; and 12 additional chemicals recognised by the SAB as having potential RCA applications.
    [Show full text]