Chamber of Deputies Passes Law Allowing Police to Carry Heavy Weapons

April 21, 1997 -- Haiti's lower house in Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, passed a law on April 8, 1997 amending the 1994 law creating the Haitian National Police to allow a "special unit" of the HNP to carry weapons more powerful than the side-arms currently provided for in the 1994 law. Only police assigned to special units guarding the President, the Prime Minister and other members of the government, those guarding key government buildings, the frontier and airports, and those charged with combating armed gangs and drug traffickers will be allowed to carry certain heavy weapons defined in the law.

These weapons include semi-automatic pistols, light assault rifles, 12-calibre rifles and rifles capable of launching tear-gas canisters. The law provides that these weapons can only be carried and used following a decision by the Superior Council of the HNP, the highest decision-making authority in the HNP. The weapons will also be under strict control and can never be used in ordinary police operations. The Senate has yet to take up the law.

The rationale most often offered to justify enhancing the HNP's firepower is the heavy weapons, often including Uzi submachine guns, used by some of the criminal gangs operating in Cite Soleil and elsewhere. The use of automatic weapons is common in many police forces around the world, but much specialized training and strict oversight of these weapons and the units employing them is essential. Their use must always be a last resort and only if the lives of the police or third parties are in imminent, immediate danger. NCHR urges the Haitian Senate to examine the bill carefully and insure that all necessary safeguards and guarantees respecting human rights and the lawful use of deadly force are included. It is also important to strengthen the investigative capacity of the HNP Inspector-General's office to handle any investigations into the use of these heavy weapons to determine whether such use was justified.

For a clear statement of the international standards on the use of deadly force by police or other state agents, see the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials (adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, 1990).