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Righting Wrongs: Criminal Law Provisions in the Philippines related to
National Security and their Impact on Human Rights Defenders
2. Law enforcement officers must be instructed and trained to respect the right of individuals to
peacefully assemble, in a manner that is consistent with the respect for the right guaranteed in the
ICCPR. Any law enforcement officer who violates the right to peacefully assemble should be held
accountable, and victims of violations should have the right to an effective remedy and redress.183
3. Law enforcement officers’ response to unlawful assemblies must be consistent with respect for
human rights; this requires, among other things, that they must respect the Basic Principles on
the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. Thus, the authorities must ensure that
law enforcement officials receive regular and continuing training on the use of force that is consistent
with these Principles. Law enforcement officials who use excessive or otherwise unlawful force must
be held to account. Consistent with these Principles, in cases of unlawful assemblies that are nonviolent, law enforcement officers should avoid the use of force altogether. When that is not practicable
or in the event of the outbreak of violence, any force used must be restricted to the minimum
necessary, and must be proportionate.184 In the policing of violent assemblies, law enforcement
officers may use firearms only in self- defense or in defense of others against the imminent threat
of death or serious injury or to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving a
grave threat to life, and only when less dangerous means are not practicable. In any event, the
intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect
life.
183 Ibid. at para. 84(i-j).
184 Principle 13 of the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, adopted by the 8th United Nations
Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, 27 August to 7 September 1990. http://www.
ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/UseOfForceAndFirearms.aspx (Accessed August 2014).
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