120 Resource book on the use of force and firearms in law enforcement When force is used for the dispersal of an assembly the following principles should be respected:262 • Where pepper spray or other irritant chemicals are used, decontamination procedures must be set out. • The use of baton rounds or plastic/rubber bullets, water cannon and other forceful methods of crowd control must be strictly regulated and there must be prompt medical care available. • It must be possible to identify individual law enforcement officials who used arbitrary force or used force irresponsibly; for this reason they should wear name tags or numbers.263 • The use of force should trigger an automatic and prompt review process after the event. It is good practice for law-enforcement officials to maintain a written and detailed record of force used, including deployed weapons. • Moreover, where injuries or deaths result from the use of force by law-enforcement personnel, an independent, open, prompt and effective investigation must be established. These should address responsibility at all levels of command. Containment The exact opposite of dispersal is called “containment” (also known as “kettling”) where the participants are grouped together and cordoned off from outside, with a view to preventing other protesters from joining the “kettled” group.264 Containment is a problematic tactic from a human rights perspective, especially when used for long periods of time, preventing those contained from access to water or sanitary facilities and may amount to deprivation of liberty or, under certain circumstances, inhuman or degrading treatment.265 The Special Rapporteur on the rights of freedom of assembly and association has repeatedly raised concerns about the use of containment as a tactic while policing protests, calling it “intrinsically detrimental to the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, due to its indiscriminate and disproportionate nature”. He has recommended that States stop using kettling.266 In any event, containment should only be used in exceptional circumstances, i.e. when there are reasonable grounds to believe there is actual violence, or a threat of imminent violence, and should be used for no longer than is reasonably necessary.267 It should only be employed when necessary to prevent serious damage or injury and when there is no other alternative police tactics, less restrictive to the rights to liberty and the freedom of movement that can be employed.268 See OSCE Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, Explanatory Notes, para. 176. See Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Addendum:
Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A/HRC/23/39/Add.1, 17 June 2013, para. 93; Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. A/HRC/22/28, 21 Jan 2013, para. 51. 264  See Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Addendum
Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, para. 36. 265  Ibid., para. 37. 266  See Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, A/HRC/23/39, paras. 37-38 and 93. 267  See College of Policing, Core principles and legislation, 2014; College of Policing, Tactical options, 2014. 268  See OSCE Monitoring Report 2013-2014, para. 55. 262  263