This Commission recommends that the police observe the practices employed by other
democratic countries in riot control and handling unlawful assemblies and compile a modern
mechanism to control riots and unlawful public gatherings in a manner that protects human
rights, with assistance obtained from the Police Commission as required. The final draft of this
document should be handed over to the Commission by 1 st March 2016.
In addition to this, it is essential to provide special training to all police officers to make them
aware of the operationalizing of this mechanism. This must be facilitated with the use of a
training manual prepared by the relevant authorities; details of the way in which this training was
conducted and implemented should be compiled into a report and submitted to the Commission
by 1st March 2016.
It is also advised that women police officers be deployed in such events to disperse assemblies in
the future. Relevant measures must be taken by the police to that effect and the Commission
should be informed of the details of their implementation.
8.3 Disciplinary Action
The Commission recommends the police officers who were involved in the incident in question
be identified, and disciplinary action be taken against them for the violation of the students’
fundamental rights. A report outlining the details of disciplinary action taken against the relevant
officers must be submitted to the Commission by 1 st March 2016.
The Commission orders an investigation to identify the police officers who directly carried out
the assault in violation of the fundamental rights of the students, the officers who gave order to
carry out this attack as well as the supervising officers at the time of the violation in question be
carried out and disciplinary action be taken against them.
8.4 Necessity of State Officials to Focus on Resolving Public Issues
The Human Rights Commission observes that the concerns of the HNDA students had persisted
for a long time, when they announced through public media their intention to conduct a protest
march on 29th October 2015. It is very unlikely that the relevant officials were not aware of these
issues. It must be emphasized that public officials have a special duty to prevent such hostile
situations from arising.
Therefore, the Commission recommends the responsible authorities take reasonable and prompt
measures to resolve such concerns before they become protracted issues. Furthermore, the need
to take appropriate and prompt measures when such issues lead to situations like protest marches
is stressed, in order to prevent aggressive behavior.
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