|
|
|
|
| home -
find out more -
the issues - the problem - guns and policing |
| Guns and Policing: Human Rights Standards for Police Officers |
The spread
of guns in societies around the world means that the
police officers responsible for ensuring the safety
of our communities must increasingly face armed suspects.
And in order to be able to do their job of protecting
the public, the police need to be authorised to use
minimum force if necessary.
But around the world, police and law enforcement officials
misuse their right to use force, with fatal consequences.
Many police forces are armed, but are not trained in
the human rights standards that govern when weapons
can be fired. They are taught how to fire a gun, but
not how to assess whether it should be fired at all.
In many cases this is because the resources to train
police in human rights standards and tactical decision-making
are insufficient. But sometimes police repeatedly misuse
guns with impunity because they are unaccountable or
acting as the tools of a deliberately repressive government.
Either way, if communities cannot trust the police to
exercise their right to use force responsibly, they
are more likely to hold on to weapons and use them themselves,
thus continuing the cycle of gun proliferation and violence.
International standards do exist to control the use
of guns and other methods of force by police and other
law enforcement officials, but in many countries they
are not being followed.
These standards centre on the UN Code of Conduct for
Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles
on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement
Officials. At their heart is the principle of what constitutes
legitimate force. Police must sometimes be permitted
to use force or lethal force, in order to do their job
of keeping communities safe and protecting themselves
and the public from life-threatening attacks. But the
force used must not be arbitrary; it must be proportionate,
necessary and lawful. And, crucially, it must only be
used in self defence or against the imminent threat
of death or serious injury.
In order to comply with this essential principle, police
must know how to assess rapidly when a threat to life
is being made. They need to be extremely well trained
in tactical threat assessment so that they can judge
in each different context whether a use of force, including
lethal force, will be proportionate, necessary and lawful.
The Control Arms Campaign is calling for governments and police forces to implement the UN standards for policing in their law and practice. We also want governments and institutions that fund police or community safety projects to make their financial assistance dependent on police forces in the recipient country putting the UN standards into law and practice. Moreover, when governments are deciding whether to export arms to law enforcement agencies, they should be refused if those forces persistently violate the UN standards. |
|
Guns and Policing, the latest campaign report to be produced by the Control Arms Campaign, has been written by Amnesty International to show how international standards do exist to control the use of guns and other methods of force by police and other law enforcement officials, but how in many countries they are not being followed. The report gives examples of the different ways in which police forces around the world are failing to respect these UN standards, but also offers some illustrations of positive moves towards reform. |
Press Release: Preventing police from misusing their guns |
|
