A/HRC/35/23/Add.1 D. Personal use of firearms 26. Violence is also heightened by the extensive personal use of firearms, facilitated by highly permissive legislation on arm possession and the rampant proliferation of private security companies. In response to high violence rates in the country, people have resorted to buying guns and hiring the services of private security companies. 27. The Law on the Control of Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and other Similar Items allows anyone to request one or more licenses to possess and carry firearms. The right to register up to five firearms was recently reduced to three. Estimates put the number of firearms in circulation in Honduras at 800,000 to 1,000,000, of which only 282,000 are registered. 7 It is evident that this permissive regulation has contributed to the spiralling violence in the country and facilitated access to weaponry by gangs, organized criminal groups and private security companies. A new draft law on gun control is currently being considered by the National Congress, with a view to tightening regulations and access to guns. E. Private security companies 28. In a report, the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination indicated that there were 706 private security companies registered in Honduras, as well as 60,000 private guards, many of whom were illegal and unregistered. Given that there were 14,000 police officers in Honduras, the ratio of private security personnel to police was almost 5 to 1.8 29. The provision of private security services is subject to the Organic Law of the National Police and the Regulations for the Control of Private Security Services. The law entrusts the Ministry of Security to authorize, regulate and supervise private security companies and creates a control unit for private security services to control and monitor these companies. However, the authorities do not implement that mandate effectively. There are insufficient vetting processes for the licensing of such companies and their agents, inadequate supervision of their operations and a lack of control of the weapons used and the training provided to private security agents. Many companies are reportedly owned by or constituted of agents who are former military or police officers, including officers suspected of past human rights violations. In addition, while the existing framework regulates the types of weapons that companies may use, it does not set the conditions for the use of arms and force. Moreover, violations of the Law and the Regulations do not seem to result in the revocation of licences or sanctions. 30. It is clear that in many cases private security providers play a positive role, for which the police is currently not equipped. At the same time, they can and in some cases do form part of the problem of excessive violence in society. The legal framework within which they operate appears to be insufficient. The sector needs to be better regulated and controlled. According to information from the Government received subsequent to the visit, the Congress is considering a draft law on private security services aiming at reinforcing regulations and forbidding certain public officials to hold ownership of private security companies. Other sources indicated that the law had been pending approval for two years and didn’t preclude anyone with a criminal or disciplinary record from being a member of such companies. 31. Private security staff have been linked to numerous attacks and killings, for example, in areas of high social conflict. However, in a study, it was found that during investigations police and prosecutors in Bajo Aguán routinely failed to take adequate steps to ascertain the possible involvement of private security agents in serious crimes, including 7 8 See Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Situation of Human Rights in Honduras (December 2015), p. 27. Available from www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Honduras-en-2015.pdf. See A/HRC/24/45/Add.1, para. 14. 7