A/74/969
I. Introduction
1.
The present report was prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution 73/304.
In that resolution, the Assembly recognized that the absence of common international
standards on the import, export and transfer of goods used for (a) capital punishment,
(b) torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment contributes to
the availability of these goods and enables such practices. It acknowledged the growing
support across all regions for concluding an international instrument, negotiated on a
non-discriminatory, transparent and multilateral basis, to establish such common
international standards. The Assembly also acknowledged the importance of
international trade and the need to ensure that the establishment of common
international standards does not create barriers to international trade in other goods.
2.
In paragraph 1 of resolution 73/304, the General Assembly requested the
Secretary-General to seek the views of Member States on the feasibility and possible
scope of a range of options to establish common international standards for the
import, export and transfer of goods used for (a) capital punishment, (b) torture or
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and to submit a report on
the subject to the Assembly at its seventy-fourth session.
3.
Accordingly, in March 2020, the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, on behalf of the Secretary-General, addressed a
note verbale to all Member States with a detailed questionnaire inviting them to share
information on relevant regional and national legal frameworks and to express views
on the type, feasibility and scope of common inter national standards for trade in the
aforementioned goods. The present report is based on an analysis of the inputs
submitted by 46 Member States. 1
II. Existing regional and national frameworks and
other measures
4.
Since 2002, in its yearly and then biennial resolutions on torture and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the General Assembly has been
calling upon all States to take appropriate effective legislative, administrative,
judicial and other measures to prevent and prohibit the production, trade, export,
import and use of equipment that is specifically designed to inflict torture or has no
practical use other than for the purpose of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment. 2
5.
At the regional level, the European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2019/125 of
the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 January 2019 concerning trade in
certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (the European Union anti-torture
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2
2/13
Submissions were received from Albania, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan,
Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia,
Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan,
Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The full text of the
submissions is available on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights.
See General Assembly resolutions 56/143, 57/200, 58/164, 59/182, 60/148, 61/153, 62/148,
63/166, 64/153, 65/205, 66/150 (in which the Assembly addressed import for the first time),
67/161, 68/156, 70/146, 72/163 and 74/143.
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