19. In the framework of the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, between 26 May and 5 June
2020, Amnesty International documented 125 separate incidents of police violence against protesters in
40 states and the District of Columbia, concluding that “the use of lethal force against people of colour
in the USA should be understood as part of the wider pattern of racially discriminatory treatment by
law enforcement officers, including unjustified stops and searches, excessive use of force and racial
profiling”41. The use of potentially deadly restraint techniques and the unnecessary and excessive use
of specific weapons, such as chemical irritants and kinetic impact projectiles resulted in serious injuries.
Amnesty’s report denounces the shocking failure to limit the use of force to situations where it is
necessary and proportionate to an actual threat and details how protesters, journalists, legal observers
and street medics were met with police violence.42
20. The UN Guidance on less-lethal weapons highlights the specific risks associated with each type
of less-lethal weapons listed. In the case of chemical irritants aimed at dispersing public gatherings
that turn violent, the document highlights that their use should be a last resort, with law enforcement
agencies first trying to identify and isolate any violent participants.43 The Guidance also stipulates that
due consideration should be given to non-violent participants and bystanders, as well as to the risk
of causing a stampede.44 Moreover, as stated in previous decisions of the European Court of Human
Rights, these can have serious short and long-term effects on people’s health45.
21. The UN Guidance warns that the effects of chemical irritants dispersed at a distance (tear gas) can
be indiscriminate as a result of external factors like the direction of the wind. An indiscriminate spread
of chemical irritants prevents law enforcement officials from protecting vulnerable individuals46 from its
harmful effects, as well as from guaranteeing the enjoyment of the individual right to peaceful assembly47.
KEY GUIDELINES TO PRESERVE
THE PERSONAL INTEGRITY DURING ASSEMBLIES
22. The right of peaceful assembly protects peaceful assemblies48 – not merely lawful assemblies. This
means that the authorities cannot rely on the purported unlawfulness of a peaceful demonstration
41. A
mnesty International, USA the World is Watching: Mass violations by U.S police of Black Lives Matter protests, 2020, p.5. See also OMCT
statement, 5/06/2020, available here: https://www.omct.org/en/resources/statements/was-george-floyd-tortured-to-death-urgentmeasures-are-needed-to-prevent-lasting-damage-to-human-rights-and-democracy and joint statement, 9/06/2020: https://www.omct.
org/en/resources/statements/open-letter-to-un-human-rights-council-to-convene-a-special-session-on-police-violence-in-the-usa-1
42. Amnesty International, USA the World is Watching: Mass violations by U.S police of Black Lives Matter protests, 2020.
43. “ Tear gas affects people differently, with children, pregnant women and the elderly particularly susceptible to its effects.” See: Amnesty
International, Tear Gas: An Investigation, available at: https://teargas.amnesty.org/#how-it-works.
44. O
ffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Guidance on Less Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement, 2020, paras.
6.33 and 6.34.
45. E
uropean Court of Human Rights, Abdullah Yaşa and others v. Turkey, 2013, para. 30 :“[t]he use of chemical irritants can temporarily
cause breathing difficulties, nausea, vomiting, irritation of the respiratory tract, tear ducts and eyes, spasms, chest pains, dermatitis
or allergies. In large doses, it can cause necrosis of the tissue in the respiratory tract and the digestive system, pulmonary oedema
and internal bleeding”. DON’T KNOW HOW TO REMOVE YELLOW (HSM)
46. L
aw enforcement officials must take appropriate and heightened precautionary measures to protect vulnerable groups. See: Special
Rapporteur on extrajudicial, arbitrary or summary executions. (UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, arbitrary or summary
executions, #Covid19 Human Rights Dispatch – Number 1)
47. S
ee Assembly, Joint report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and the Special
Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on the proper management of assemblies, 4 February 2016, A/HRC/31/66,
para. 4.
48. “ Such assemblies may take many forms, including demonstrations, protests, meetings, processions, rallies, sit-ins, candlelit vigils
and flash mobs.” United Nations Human Rights Committee, General Comment 37, 2020, CCPR/C/GC/37, para.6.
“To avert the risk of a restrictive interpretation, the European Court has refrained from formulating the notion of an assembly, which
it regards as an autonomous concept, or exhaustively listing the criteria which would define it. It has specified in relevant cases that
the right to freedom of assembly covered both private meetings and meetings in public places, whether static or in the form of a
procession; in addition, it can be exercised by individual participants and by the persons organising the gathering (see Kudrevičius and
Others with further references, and Lashmankin and Others). It has also emphasised that Article 11 of the Convention only protects the
right to “peaceful assembly”, a notion which does not cover gatherings where the organisers and participants have violent intentions.
The guarantees of Article 11 therefore apply to all gatherings except those where the organisers and participants have such intentions,
incite violence or otherwise reject the foundations of a democratic society (see Kudrevičius and Others with further references).
“(European Court of Human Rights, Navalnyy v Russia, 2018).
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