A/HRC/17/28* emergency powers are in place, a specific regime of safeguards aimed at curtailing abuse must be met by States wishing to invoke emergency powers. 34 69. There is a presumption against allowing derogation from freedom of assembly in response to mass demonstrations, even where there are instances of violence. States have to submit strong evidence to rebut this presumption. 70. However, while freedom of peaceful assembly may legitimately be curtailed during states of emergency, the other non-derogable rights of the demonstrators, such as the right to life, remain in place and have to be respected. 35 International humanitarian law 71. During armed conflict, international human rights law, to the extent that specific rights have not been suspended, and subject to the dictates of international humanitarian law, remains applicable as lex generalis. 36 Unlawful killing is prohibited under international humanitarian law, including in the case of non-international armed conflict, according to common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. 37 International criminal law 72. Unlawful killing during peace and war times may constitute an international crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and would also apply to those participating in demonstrations, as is evidenced by the recent referral to the International Criminal Court of the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, where peaceful protesters were killed by Government troops. 38 73. More than a thousand people lost their lives during election-related violence in Kenya, in respect of which prosecution is now under way in the International Criminal Court. The situations in Honduras, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire are also being investigated. The role of United Nations peacekeepers in handling protest 74. United Nations peacekeeping troops sometimes encounter situations where they are faced with protesters. It is important that the peacekeeping troops comply with international standards in managing such situations. 34 35 36 37 38 For example, a state of emergency can only be declared, and remain in force in terms of article 4 of the ICCPR, where the emergency “threatens the life of the nation;” it cannot be used to save a specific Government. This is contrary to Nowak, UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (see para. 34, fn. 9), p. 487, who states that during violent protests, participants lose their human rights protection. See International Court of Justice, “Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons,” Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996, para 25. See discussion in Rodley, The treatment of prisoners under international law (see para. 53, fn. 31), p. 260. Security Council resolution 1970 (2011) referred the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the International Criminal Court because of the “gross and systematic violation of human rights, including the repression of peaceful demonstrators”; on 23 February 2011, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, in a communiqué issued at the 261st meeting, “express[ed] deep concern with the situation in [Libya] and strongly condemn[ed] the indiscriminate use of force and lethal weapons against peaceful protesters”; the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights ordered provisional measures against Libya on the same grounds, see African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v. Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, App. No. 004/2011, dated 25 March 2011. 13