from prisoners who lost consciousness more than once during these “torture sessions”. In 2018, meanwhile, the MEPCT/ RJ denounced the use of a “torture technique” called the “ballerina” in the Socio-Education Centre Professor Antônio Carlos Gomes da Costa, a juvenile centre for girls. This consisted of handcuffing the victim’s hands above them, thus forcing them to remain on their toes to avoid arm pain . 40 2.6 Firearms and live ammunition Firearms which are loaded with conventional metal-jacketed ammunition are designed to kill. Firearms commonly used by police and other law enforcement officials include pistols, shotguns and rifles43. According to the UN Basic Principles, lethal firearms are, as a general rule, not appropriate for the management of mass gatherings or in places of detention and should only be used when ‘strictly unavoidable in order to protect life’44. Furthermore, the use of firearms in fully automatic or burst fire mode should not normally be used for law enforcement purposes45. Nonetheless, each year thousands of people are killed globally by law enforcement officials using lethal firearms. The problem of police shootings is particularly acute in Brazil, where the excessive and unnecessary use of lethal force is common in the context of the so-called “war on drugs”. In 2018, the number of people killed as a result of police operations rose to a record high level of 6,220, equivalent to 17 deaths every day46. Even with a sharp fall of crimes during the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of deaths continues to rise, especially in states with a history of high lethality such as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and Goiás47. ▲ A prisoner restrained using hinged metal handcuffs, photographed by the MNCPT during a monitoring visit, 2017, © MNCPT In addition to the use of stress positions, torture monitors have also reported the inappropriate use of restraints on vulnerable detainees. In 2016, for example, the MEPCT/RJ reported that nine victims of a fire at the Escola João Luiz Alves, a juvenile detention centre, were taken to the Souza Aguiar Hospital in Rio de Janeiro for treatment. In its report, the mechanism expressed concern that during their hospitalization the adolescents were kept handcuffed to their beds, despite being very weak and some having burns on their wrists. One teenager died shortly after arriving at the hospital, while another boy died in the hospital days later, where he was kept handcuffed until his last hours of life41. In another case in 2018, the MEPCT/RJ reported ▲ Firearms photographed during a monitoring visit by the MNCPT, September 2017 © MNCPT that, despite a State Law that prohibits the use of handcuffs during labor, a pregnant woman in Rio de Janeiro was kept handcuffed to her hospital bed until she was giving birth and then again during the night after she had given birth42. Many have attributed this recent increase in police killings in Brazil, to the rhetoric and policies of the Brazilian Government, whose hardline approach to tackling criminality has attracted widespread international condemnation. In 2019, for example, President Bolsonaro’s Government introduced a bill, the effect of which, makes it easier for police officers who use lethal force to avoid prosecution. Commenting on the bill, President Bolsonaro said that if the proposals were approved by congress then criminals would ‘die in the streets like 18  19