13 4. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS PERTAINING TO LESSLETHAL WEAPONS AND RELATED EQUIPMENT 4.1 DESIGN AND PRODUCTION 4.1.1 Less-lethal weapons and related equipment intended for use in law enforcement shall be designed and produced to meet legitimate law enforcement objectives and to comply with international human rights law. This duty applies to the State and its agents, and also to companies that manufacture weapons for law enforcement.46 4.1.2 Public and private manufacturers of less-lethal weapons and related equipment should bring specific risks to the attention of the purchaser and/or user and to that of the public at large. States, law enforcement agencies and manufacturers should be transparent about the technical specifications of weapons in use, while respecting manufacturers’ intellectual property rights. At a minimum, all material safety data sheets should be provided by the manufacturers for the purchaser and/or user. Publicly available data should include each weapon’s design features and parameters47 with a view to facilitating medical treatment and public acceptance. Manufacturers should also identify and release all medical studies and the names of the experts who have contributed to safety analyses, indicating those who have received compensation for promoting their products. 4.1.3 The nature of law enforcement places special constraints on the extent to which force may be delivered remotely.48 Among other reasons, this is because distance is likely to reduce substantially the potential for assessing a situation that requires a law enforcement intervention (such as the arrest of a criminal suspect), and then for resolving it peacefully. In any event, an appropriate measure of human control over the use of force in law enforcement should be ensured. This has significant implications for the design of less-lethal weapons and related equipment. See for example Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, OHCHR, Geneva/New York, 2011. 47 In the case of a chemical irritant, for example, this would encompass its strength and the type of solvent used. 48 Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (A/69/265), paras. 77–89. 46