iii FOREWORD Law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials1 Applying the above provision properly can be challenging. Law enforcement officials bear the immense responsibility of determining whether force is necessary in a particular situation and, if so, precisely how much is proportional to the threat they face.2 They are often required to strike this balance in a matter of seconds under complex and hazardous conditions, always mindful of the general principles relating to the use of force and international human rights law. And the costs of error could not be higher; where life is lost through the unnecessary use of force, the result is a human tragedy that can never be made good. To avoid the need to resort to lethal force, States must supply law enforcement officials with effective, less-lethal means, and train them in their lawful use. In some cases, unfortunately, law enforcement officials use less-lethal weapons improperly, leading to serious injury or even death. In others, they deliberately use less-lethal weapons to cause maximum injury to persons who do not pose a threat sufficiently serious to warrant the use of such weapons. To be clear, and as the Human Rights Committee has indicated in its general comment on the right to life, even less-lethal weapons must be employed only when they are subject to strict requirements of necessity and proportionality, in situations in which other less harmful measures have proven to be or are clearly ineffective to address the threat. 1 2 General Assembly resolution 34/169, annex. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36 (2018) on the right to life, para. 14.