Believing that it would be highly inappropriate to criminalise those who seek to protect their life and liberty in the face of violence, the General Assembly hereby:
-
defines, for the purpose of this resolution:
-
a “LEO” as an on-duty law enforcement officer,
-
“harm” as imminent and unlawful death, life-threatening injury, or violation of bodily sovereignty suffered by a person, and
-
“self-defence” as physical violence a person inflicts against a third party in order to protect themselves or another person from harm which that third party threatens to cause at the time that violence was inflicted,
-
requires that member states (subject to prior and standing international law, future international law restricting the use of force by LEOs, and Articles c and d):
-
recognise actions constituting self-defence as fully legal,
-
allow any person suspected of a crime involving physical violence against a third party to affirm that that violence constitutes self-defence, and
-
only convict a person pleading as such if their affirmation has been disproven in accordance with the respective member’s ordinary evidentiary standards,
-
recommends that members do not recognise physical violence against a LEO seeking to lawfully carry out an arrest as self-defence,
-
demands that members do not recognise as self-defence:
-
any physical violence a person exercises despite knowing about and being able to successfully use non-violent means of deterrence or aversion (as legislated by individual members) that promise similar immediate relief of the threat of harm,
-
any use of force that is disproportionate to the threat of harm,
-
any action a person takes in response to a threat of harm which they themselves deliberately induced, and
-
any action constituting (or aiding in) torture,
-
clarifies that a person who earnestly believes that they act under the legal protections for self-defence remains entitled to them regardless of Articles c and d(i-iii), and
-
encourages the passage of future legislation on self-defence education.