Other Crowd Control 7.7 BLINDING LASERS Key Technical Features Human Rights Concerns Statements and Standards from Human Rights Bodies Examples of Existing Controls Blinding lasers can be rifle-shaped with bipods and picatinny rail, shaped like a baton, or designed to be attached as accessories to small arms or light weapons. These weapons are specifically designed to be used to cause permanent blindness or severe damage to vision. Blinding lasers can cause permanent loss or damage to vision, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, and headaches. Owing to the recent and ongoing development of these weapons, as of 2021, there has either been a lack of testing of blinding lasers, or a lack of reporting on any testing that has taken place. Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons: blinding weapons are “excessively injurious”. 127 OHCHR: “The use of [blinding lasers] is widely considered to violate international human rights law. They should not be used in law enforcement” 128 Blinding lasers are prohibited under Protocol IV of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Manufacture should be prohibited. Proposed Control Transfer should be prohibited. Use should be prohibited. UN, Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, (As Amended on 21 December 2001), 10 127 October 1980, 1342 UNTS 137, Protocol IV. 128 OHCHR, UN Human rights guidance on less-lethal weapons in law enforcement, 2020, para 5.1. 129