5 and standards shall be adopted on the use of force by law enforcement agencies and officials. The relevant State legislation must be clear enough to ensure that its legal implications are foreseeable, and must be widely published to ensure that it is easily accessible to everyone. Force in law enforcement shall never be used punitively.19 2.5 Only weapons and weapons systems duly authorized by the relevant State authorities for use in law enforcement may be deployed by law enforcement agencies and used by law enforcement officials. Domestic law and regulations shall specify conditions for the use of less-lethal weapons and related equipment, and shall impose limitations on their use in order to minimize the risk of injury. PRECAUTION 2.6 Law enforcement operations and actions shall be planned and conducted while taking all necessary precautions to prevent or at least minimize the risk of recourse to force by law enforcement officials and members of the public, and to minimize the severity of any injury that may be caused.20 Law enforcement officials should delay direct contact or engagement with members of the public if that would make the need to use force, or the potential for violent outcomes, less likely, and if the delay causes no danger to the individual posing the threat or to others.21 Training law enforcement officials, equipping them with adequate protective equipment and an appropriate range of less-lethal weapons, and making these officials available are essential precautionary measures if unnecessary or excessive harm is to be prevented. UNODC/OHCHR, Resource book on the use of force and firearms in law enforcement, p. 17. European Court of Human Rights, McCann and others v. United Kingdom, Judgment, 27 September 1995, para. 194; Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Nadege Dorzema and others v. Dominican Republic, Judgment, 24 October 2012, para.  87; Principle 5(b), 1990 Basic Principles; Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (A/HRC/26/36), para. 63; African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, General Comment on the Right to Life, 2015, para. 27. 21 European Court of Human Rights, Shchiborshch and Kuzmina v. Russia, Judgment, 16 January 2014, para. 240. 19 20