28 Resource book on the use of force and firearms in law enforcement 2.2.  Non-discrimination: providing fair law enforcement for all An important indicator for a human rights-based approach to law enforcement is whether law enforcement officials provide an effective and equitable response to diverse populations. As addressed in chapter 1, the principle of non-discrimination is at the heart of human rights. The State has a positive obligation to ensure that all people can enjoy their human rights to the fullest. In line with the resolution adopting the United Nations Code of Conduct, the police should be “representative of and responsive to and accountable to” the community it serves.72 Key elements of a strategy to ensure that the human rights and freedoms of those most vulnerable are respected and protected include: • Outreach. Law enforcement agencies should actively reach out to representatives of those groups that are most vulnerable to abuse, in order to engage them in matters concerning security, identify problematic areas and formulate solutions in consultation with these groups, rather than unilaterally. • Training and awareness-raising. It is crucial that during training sufficient attention is given to the principle of non-discrimination and more specifically to the obligations law enforcement officials have towards certain groups in society. Training should also address the risk of stereotyping and ethnic profiling. • Monitoring. Law enforcement agencies should ensure that they keep reliable statistics so that they can monitor the use of force and whether it disproportionally affects certain groups and possible patterns detected in order to take appropriate action where needed.73 COLOMBIA: MEASURES TO PROTECT VULNERABLE GROUPS AND ENSURE DIVERSITY IN POLICING The Colombian police are implementing a strategy on respecting and protecting groups at risk.a They identified six priority groups as facing disproportionate vulnerability due to factors including poverty and violence. The groups include human rights defenders and trade unionists, indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, victims of displacement, women and the LGBT population. These groups were then geographically mapped in order to identify the location of the highest violence. Subsequently, the police defined seven modes of institutional interventions, which include specialized training, dialogue, specialized police services, investigations of crimes against members of these populations, capacitybuilding, inter-institutional coordination and police integrity. In order to meet its obligations in a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual society, the Colombian National Police have in recent years founded police training schools for different ethnic groups in Colombia and trained other members of the institution there in understanding and policing these communities. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia has documented how alumni from these schools have managed conflict to avoid using of force when relating with these communities, and enhanced communication and cooperation between them.b a  National Police of Colombia, Book 5: 16 Operational Strategies of the National Police, Plan Green Heart, 2012, paras. 152-160; National Police of Colombia, Permanent Operational Directive 003,11 July 2013. b  OHCHR, Colombia and National Police of Colombia, Final Report: Joint Monitoring Report on the Implementation of Five Selected Human Rights Prevention and Response Mechanisms in the National Police of Colombia. 72  See for instance the OSCE Recommendations on Policing in Multi-Ethnic Societies: http://www.osce.org/ hcnm/32227 and the recommendations of the OHCHR Expert Meeting on Integration with diversity in policing, Vienna, 2008. 73  In Pittsburgh, United States, the police have developed an auditing cycle to review potential racial bias, including use of racial epithets, by officers, placing responsibility on supervisors to act on data with the goal of eliminating actions that reflect racial bias by officers; Pittsburgh Consent Decree, chapter 13, available at: http:// www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/pittssa.php.