We use various third-party cookies to provide social media features and to analyze our traffic. Please use the options below to manage your cookie settings. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Please be aware, if you deny cookies, certain features of our website may not work.
This will apply to all services
Google Analytics
YouTube
Tony Webster
31 July 2018
Stakeholders are invited to submit comments or suggestions to a draft set of guidelines on the lawful and responsible design, production, procurement, testing, training, transfer, and use of less-lethal weapons and related equipment. These draft guidelines have been developed following a broad consultation process carried out in the framework of the Geneva Human Rights Platform and its focus on current challenges related to the use of force.
In an international expert group convened by the Geneva Academy and the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa (University of Pretoria) the United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, representatives from law enforcement agencies around the world, academic experts and members of civil society could comment on a draft set of guidelines on the lawful and responsible design, production, procurement, testing, training, transfer, and use of less-lethal weapons (LLWs) and related equipment.
The draft revised by the international expert group was designed early this year by an academic working group made of leading academics, law enforcement experts and practitioners, and representatives from international organizations and civil society. The process also benefited from a series of meetings and consultations throughout 2018 and from ongoing contributions of several UN Special Rapporteurs.
This draft document aims to build upon, and in no way to challenge or to update, the United Nations (UN) Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
It is intended to assist relevant stakeholders in meeting the requirement of these existing standards to develop ‘non-lethal incapacitating weapons for use in appropriate situations’ and that such development and/or deployment of such weapons be ‘carefully evaluated in order to minimize the risk of endangering uninvolved persons’.
This process forms part of the Geneva Human Rights Platform and its focus on current challenges related to the use of force.
The Geneva Academy and the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa (University of Pretoria) now seek further inputs from an even broader range of stakeholders, including representatives of states, law enforcement agencies, human rights bodies and mechanisms, private security companies, manufacturers, and individuals or agents of any bodies using force for law enforcement purposes, civil society organisations and human rights defenders.
Stakeholders are invited to submit comments or suggestions to thomas.probert[at]up.ac.za and kamelia.kemileva[at]geneva-academy.ch by 17 September 2018.
News
Geneva Academy
The Geneva Human Rights Platform is launching its 2025 training programme, designed to empower stakeholders engaging with UN human rights system.
News
Adobe
Our new research brief examines the complex relationship between digital technologies and their misuse in surveillance, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns.
Training
Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
Training
Adobe
This training course will examine how the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have been utilized to advance the concept of business respect for human rights throughout the UN system, the impact of the Guiding Principles on other international organizations, as well as the impact of standards and guidance developed by these different bodies.
Project
CCPR Centre
The Geneva Human Rights Platform collaborates with a series of actors to reflect on the implementation of international human rights norms at the local level and propose solutions to improve uptake of recommendations and decisions taken by Geneva-based human rights bodies at the local level.
Project
Adobe
This research will provide legal expertise to a variety of stakeholders on the implementation of the right to food, and on the right to food as a legal basis for just transformation toward sustainable food systems in Europe. It will also identify lessons learned from the 2023 recognition of the right to food in the Constitution of the Canton of Geneva.
Publication
Geneva Academy
