77
exhausted all other options, and for the time and to the extent strictly
necessary in order to ensure security, internal order, the protection of
the fundamental rights of persons deprived of liberty, the personnel, or
the visitors.
The personnel shall be forbidden to use firearms or other lethal weapons
inside places of deprivation of liberty, except when strictly unavoidable in
order to protect the lives of persons.
In all circumstances, the use of force and of firearms, or any other means
used to counteract violence or emergencies, shall be subject to the
supervision of the competent authority. 260
223.
For detention centers for children and adolescents, there are certain
separate standards according to which the use of force or of coercive methods is only
permitted by order of the director of the center, aimed specifically at preventing a minor
harming others or himself or wreaking major material damage. In addition, as a general
rule, personnel should be prohibited from carrying and using firearms. 261
224.
Both the Inter‐American Court and the Commission have referred to
these standards in a number of cases and scenarios in which the State’s security forces
have made excessive use of force in places of deprivation of liberty.
225.
Thus, in the Neira Alegría and Durand y Ugarte cases, the Inter‐American
Court referred to the excessive use of force in suppressing a riot that began on June 18,
1986 in the Blue Block of the San Juan Bautista (formerly El Frontón) prison in Peru, in
which prisoners tried and convicted of terrorism were being held. Through two supreme
decrees issued by the President of the Republic, the prison was placed under the absolute
material control of the Peruvian armed forces. In an operation that began at 3 a.m. on June
19, they used artillery to demolish the Blue Block, killing at least 111 inmates. 262
226.
In these cases, the Court considered that the characteristics of the riot,
the dangerousness of the rioting prisoners, and the fact that they were armed, did not
constitute sufficient grounds to warrant the degree of force used and concluded that the
disproportionate use of lethal force violated Article 4.1 of the American Convention. 263
260
There are similar provisions in the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Rules
33‐54); the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (Article 3); and specially in the Basic Principles on the
Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
261
United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (Rules 63‐65).
262
I/A Court H.R., Case of Durand and Ugarte V. Peru. Judgment of August 16, 2000. Series C No. 68,
paras. 59 and 68; I/A Court H.R., Case of Neira Alegría et al. V. Peru. Judgment of January 19, 1995. Series C No.
20, para. 69.
263
I/A Court H.R., Case of Durand and Ugarte V. Peru. Judgment of August 16, 2000. Series C No. 68,
paras. 70‐72; I/A Court H.R., Case of Neira Alegría et al. V. Peru. Judgment of January 19, 1995. Series C No. 20,
paras. 74‐76.
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