In addition to being used against people exercising their right to peaceful assembly, reports suggest that kinetic impact projectiles have also been abused in places of detention in Brazil. In one incident, captured on closed-circuit cameras at the Joinville Regional Prison in Santa Catarina State in 2013, officials, reportedly from the Department of Prison Administration, forced a group of male detainees to strip down to their underwear, line up in tightly-packed rows, crouch down with their hands on their heads and face the wall. Behind the prisoners, a group of approximately 12 armed officials used kinetic impact projectiles and tear gas on the detainees, as well as spraying what appears to be a chemical irritant directly into their eyes34. The MNPCT has also reported on the alleged use of rubber bullets by prison staff against detainees in reprisal for having provided information to human rights monitors in the state of Mato Grosso35. 2.5 Instruments of restraint Instruments of restraint are designed to restrict or immobilize the movement of a person’s body, in whole or in part. Although, handcuffs and leg cuffs are the instruments of restraint most commonly used by law enforcement personnel, others are also used. These vary in size and shape according to which and how many parts of the body they are designed to restrain, the material they are made out of, and other design features. While conventional restraints such as handcuffs and legs cuffs can be used legitimately and safely by law enforcement personnel, their use may also be considered unlawful if not deployed in conformity with international human rights laws and standards36. UN and regional monitoring bodies and anti-torture NGOs have frequently documented the misuse of handcuffs and leg restraints to increase the level of suffering caused to individuals already under control, for example, through excessive tightening; attachment to fixed objects; prolonged use; the use of stress positions; or the use of restraints in conjunction with other means of force e.g. hand-held batons or pepper spray. Such uses of restraints increase the risk of serious injury or death and may constitute torture or ill-treatment. In Brazil, human rights organisations and torture monitors have reported numerous cases of restraints being misused by law enforcement personal and prison officers, some of which could amount to torture or other illtreatment. While the following examples of abuse are particularly egregious, it is important to note that the routine use of instruments of restraint in certain places of detention, including juvenile centres37, and even in some courtrooms38 is also of concern and can amount to a violation of the prohibition of torture and other illtreatment, the presumption of innocence and other human rights. In 2017, following visits to places of detention in the state of Mato Grosso, the MNPCT reported that it was ‘quite common for prisoners to be cuffed with their hands and feet behind them, passing one instrument of restraint inside the other’. The report added that prisoners are then ‘thrown on the floor, belly down, in a position known to them as the “little package”. At this point, prison guards punch and kick the prisoner, before spraying pepper spray into a plastic bag and placing it over the prisoners’ heads’.39 The MNPCT delegation received testimony 16  Metal handcuffs and leg cuffs fixed to metal bars, photographed by the MNCPT during a monitoring visit, 2017, © MNCPT