66 INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ARMED CONFLICT Human rights treaties prohibit the arbitrary deprivation of life. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms specifies that for a deprivation of life not to be arbitrary it must be “absolutely necessary: (a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence; (b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained; (c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection” (art. 2.2). The Special Rapporteur on summary, extrajudicial or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, further stated that “the other element contributed by human rights law is that the intentional use of lethal force in the context of an armed conflict is prohibited unless strictly necessary. In other words, killing must be a last resort, even in times of war”.98 Other universal and regional human rights bodies take, by and large, the same approach.99 The Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials provide an authoritative interpretation of the principles authorities must respect when using force in order not to infringe the right to life. Those principles limit the use of firearms to cases of self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting their authority, or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives. The intentional lethal use of firearms is admissible only when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life. In addition, law enforcement officials “shall […]    E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.5, para. 29. See also Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/57/18), annex XI, Suarez de Guerrero v. Colombia, communication No. R.11/45: “The right enshrined in this article is the supreme right of the human being. It follows that the deprivation of life by the authorities of the State is a matter of the utmost gravity. This follows from the article as a whole and in particular is the reason why paragraph 2 of the article lays down that the death penalty may be imposed only for the most serious crimes. The requirements that the right shall be protected by law and that no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life mean that the law must strictly control and limit the circumstances in which a person may be deprived of his life by the authorities of a State.” 99    See, for example, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Case of Las Palmeras v. Colombia, Judgement of 26 November 2002, Series C, No. 96. 98