[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 174 (Tuesday, November 25, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2461-E2462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF H.R 3541, THE IMPLEMENTS OF TORTURE EXPORT CONTROL ACT 
                                OF 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 25, 2003

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday I introduced the Implements of 
Torture Export Control Act of 2004, a bill to make it impossible for 
those who torture people abroad to misuse U.S. produced equipment for 
that purpose. This measure is similar to an amendment that was adopted 
on a bipartisan basis in the Committee on International Relations in 
the 107th Congress as part of legislation to reform the U.S. export 
control system.
  Mr. Speaker, I introduced H.R. 3541 out of concern that the U.S. and 
other Western nations are exporting crime control and torture equipment 
to human rights abuses around the world. This bill would write into law 
a standard that should be an axiom of U.S. human rights foreign policy: 
the United States, while it seeks to improve respect for the basic 
human rights of person throughout the world, ought not to sell to 
torturers implements that make it easier for them to inflict pain and 
suffering on their helpless victims.
  Mr. Speaker, in the right hands, crime control equipment can protect 
the innocent. In the wrong hands, it is used on the innocent. Amnesty 
International reports that governments that regularly use torture 
against detained persons frequently use crime control equipment from 
the U.S. and other Western suppliers as ready-made implements of 
torture. Existing export regulations require general licenses for the 
export of many types of crime control equipment, leaving whole 
categories of criminal equipment free to be exported without any 
specific review. It is true that most of this equipment, including 
electroshock discharge weapons, can be purchased domestically by 
private U.S. citizens for ``self-defense'' purposes. However, private 
U.S. citizens--as well as U.S. law enforcement officials--can be 
reliably prosecuted for any abuse of these implements as torture tools. 
Exports of these same items, however, to countries that use torture as 
part of official or condoned practice should be regulated because they 
may have unreliable or nonexistent systems of judicial accountability 
for torture abuse.
  No U.S. exporter should ever want to sell its products to 
governments, or government-supported groups, that will use the labor of 
American workers to torture their citizens. But U.S. exporters do not 
have the resources to know the totality of the practices of their 
prospective customers. It is up to the U.S. Government to ensure that 
American products do not go to abusive governments.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3541 would do a number of things:
  It would require that the Secretary of Commerce create a list of 
crime control an detection instruments and equipment especially 
susceptible to abuse as implements of torture.

  It would require that an individual export license of all such items 
unless the export is to a major ally, and requires that applications 
are reviewed by human rights experts in the U.S. government.
  It would prohibit export of all such items to any country if the 
government of such country has engaged in acts of torture until the 
Secretary of State has determined stopped such acts for the previous 
twelve months. To allow legitimate trade, however, such items could be 
exported to a particular end-user if the Secretary of State has 
determined that such end user has not engaged in acts of torture.
  Perhaps most importantly, the bill completely prohibits the export of 
certain equipment that is particularly susceptible to abuse as 
equipment of torture, such as electroshock stun belts, leg irons and 
other restraints that have sharp or serrated edges, batons or clubs 
fitted with spikes and other items that are similarly susceptible to 
misuse.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1979, the Congress recognized that crime control 
equipment required special review, but current law needs updating and 
reform. I urge all my colleagues to support this common-sense addition 
to the Export Administration Act, and ensure that American crime 
control products are not abused instead to torture the innocent.

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