Tasers a form of torture, says UN
Australia Daily Telegraph
Sunday November 25, 2007
TASER electronic stun guns
are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee has declared
after several recent deaths in North America.
"The use of these weapons causes acute
pain, constituting a form of torture,'' the UN's Committee against
Torture said.
"In certain cases, they can even cause
death, as has been shown by reliable studies and recent real-life
events,'' the committee of 10 experts said.
Three men, all in their early 20s, were
reported to have died in the United States this week, days after a
Polish man died at Vancouver airport after being Tasered by Canadian
police.
The man, Robert Dziekanski, 40, fell to
the ground and died after the police officers piled on top of him.
There have been three deaths in Canada
after the use of Tasers over the past five weeks.
The company that makes the weapons has
said that similar deaths have been shown by "medical science and
forensic analysis'' to be "attributable to other factors and not the
low-energy electrical discharge of the Taser".
The UN committee made its comments in
recommendations to Portugal, which has bought the newest Taser X26
stun gun for use by police.
Portugal "should consider giving up the
use of the Taser X26,'' as its use can have a grave physical and
mental impact on those targeted, which violates the UN's Convention
against Torture, the experts said.
