Amnesty International has considered «worrying» the decision by the Buenos Aires City Superior Tribunal of Justice to authorize the administration of Mayor Mauricio Macri to buy Taser guns to be used by the Metropolitan Police.
The human rights organization pointed out the Committee against Torture of the United Nations says that the use of such electroshock weapons creates a “huge pain” and in some cases could lead to death, also describing it as a “way of torture.”
“As a result, it violates the commitments accepted by the States regarding the absolute prohibition of torture,” Amnesty International said in a statement today.
Leah Tandeter, the International Politics and Justice Coordinator of Amnesty International Argentina, attended a conference on Thursday along with other civil society groups and affirmed the decision by the tribunal was “regressive.”
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Observatory (ODH) announced it will be filing an extraordinary appeal against the Taser ruling. In 2010, the ODH filed an appeal and succeeded in stopping the use of these guns. However, the City’s Superior Tribunal revoked the resolution banning the use of these weapons last month.
Amnesty International said it will act as a third party if Argentina’s Supreme Court decides to take the case.
“The Taser weapons are used in different countries by security forces that use them in many cases in situations that apparently entail no serious danger for the life of people,” Amnesty said in the statement, explaining that for instance in the United States 35 people died in 2014 after police officers shocked them with the Taser weapons, “taking the total number of dead under such circumstances since 2001 to 602.”
“It was determined that the majority of these people were unarmed and did not pose a serious threat, so agents should not have turned to the use of Taser guns.”
buenosairesherald.com