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DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS
Weapons that may use technologies that produce concentrated electromagnetic
energy and atomic or subatomic particles as a means to damage or destroy
equipment or to kill or injure personnel.122 Directed energy weapons may also be
employed for non-lethal purposes, such as when laser dazzle devices are used to
give a warning from a distance to potentially hostile actors.
DISCRIMINATION
Any distinction, exclusion or restriction on the basis of prohibited grounds (see
section 2.11 above) that has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the
recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal basis with others, of human rights
or fundamental freedoms.
IMMINENT THREAT
A threat that is reasonably expected to arise within a split second, or at most within
a matter of several seconds.123
INJURY
Physical or physiological bodily trauma resulting from the interaction of the body
with energy (mechanical, thermal, electrical or radiant, or due to extreme pressure)
in an amount or at a rate of transfer that exceeds physical or physiological tolerance,
or with toxic chemical substances.124
See Joint Chiefs of Staff, Electronic Warfare, Joint Publication 3–13.1, 8 February 2012,
pp. 1–16; and A. Feickert, U.S. Army Weapons-Related Directed Energy (DE) Programs:
Background and Potential Issues for Congress, United States Congressional Research Service,
12 February 2018, p. 1.
123
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
(A/HRC/26/36), para. 59; see also UNODC/OHCHR, Resource book on the use of force
and firearms in law enforcement, p. 21.
124
World Health Organization (WHO), “Injury, poisoning or certain other consequences of
external causes”, International Classification of External Causes of Injury (ICECI), June 2018
(available at https://bit.ly/2DGlH5j).
122
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