36 Illustrative examples of health and human rights implications During the student protests in an OSCE participating State in 2012, law enforcement authorities repeatedly used a combination of containment and mass arrests against protesters. Police reportedly did not issue warnings or orders to disperse before using tear gas, pepper spray, shields, batons, kinetic impact projectiles and stun grenades to interrupt and divide largely peaceful gatherings. It was reported that, on some occasions, the police would then begin to beat their shields with their batons and shout “move” in unison, while other police officers would block the exits from the contained areas. Once divided into groups of 50 to 200 protesters, the containment lasted for from 30 minutes to 2 hours, in very cold weather. Those affected were then restrained with plastic handcuffs and taken to a police station. Once there, they were again made to wait before being photographed and questioned, sometimes made to divulge private information, such as their mobile phone number or student association affiliation, and usually issued with a ticket ordering them to pay a fine for an administrative offence, before finally being released. The commission, established by the government of the participating State to investigate the incident found that the use of containment “led to the prolonged detention and mass arrest of peaceful protesters, whereas the procedure should have made it possible to extract individuals suspected of committing or preparing to commit a crime.” The commission stated that this had a chilling effect on those who wished to mobilize peacefully. In another participating State, the police used containment on several occasions during large protests in late 2010. A senior doctor who provided protesters with medical assistance reportedly denounced the use of containment in a confined space, saying it created a significant risk that people would severely crushed or pushed into the nearby freezing river. Those affected reportedly suffered symptoms including respiratory problems, chest pains and those of severe crushing, as well as “significant anxiety”. The human rights committee, established to investigate these events, expressed concern “about the apparent lack of opportunity for non-violent protesters to leave the contained or ‘kettled’ crowd, the adequacy of arrangements to ensure that the particularly vulnerable such as disabled persons are identified and helped to leave the containment, and the general lack of information available to the protesters about how and where to leave.”