PART I.  SETTING THE BOUNDARIES FOR THE USE OF FORCE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT Management responsibility The decision to use potentially lethal force is one of the most serious that law enforcement officials can take. By extension, the decision to equip law enforcement officials with instruments of force that are likely to be lethal or that may cause (serious) injury, or to deploy a firearms unit for a particular operation, is equally serious. The decision to equip and deploy law enforcement officials with firearms requires proper policies and a management that is responsible and is held to account for any institutional deficits where these do occur. Indeed, it would be unfair to just hold the person who used the firearm accountable when the arbitrary use of force may also be the result of institutional failure.64 More on this topic can be found in chapter 3. CHAPTER KEY MESSAGES • International human rights law sets strict conditions for the use of force by law enforcement officials. If these conditions are not respected, the use of force may be unlawful, arbitrary or excessive, and amount to a human rights violation. • A wide range of international and regional human rights instruments contain provisions relevant to the use of force by law enforcement officials. Law enforcement officials should be familiar with the content and scope of these rights. • The general guiding principles for the use of force by law enforcement officers are: legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability. • International law needs to be incorporated into an adequate legal and operational framework, i.e. into domestic legislation, policy and practice. The general principles governing the use of force, the thresholds for the use of lethal force, rules regarding accountability and regarding control and oversight mechanisms should be set out in law. • The use of firearms is always potentially lethal, requiring that law enforcement officials abide by the highest standards of care in resorting to their use. Every effort should be taken to avoid the use of firearms. • Intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life. • The decision to equip and deploy law enforcement officials with firearms and other instruments of force requires proper policies and management that is responsible and held to account for any institutional deficits. 64  This was captured in the ruling by the European Court on Human Rights in the McCann case. It is also discussed in Samuel Walker and Carol Ann Archbold, The New World of Police Accountability, Sage Publications, 2014. 23