A/HRC/35/23/Add.1 84. States are under the immediate obligation to ensure accountability where there are arbitrary losses of life, including proper investigations. A failure to do so could amount to a breach of the right to life. VII. State response to violence A. Legislation in response to gang violence 85. In response to rampant gang violence, the Congress adopted in October 2001 Legislative Decree No. 141-2001 on prevention, rehabilitation and social reintegration, which aimed to address the causes that led individuals to join gangs and to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into society, and created the National Prevention, Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Programme. In 2003, article 332 of the Criminal Code, on unlawful associations, was amended to criminalize illicit association, as part of an iron-fist (mano dura) approach, effectively criminalizing gang membership. It has been criticized for criminalizing also the actions of vulnerable persons coerced into gang membership. In July 2015, the Parliament approved reforms to the penal code, introducing harsher penalties for members of the maras, increasing the maximum prison terms for gang leaders from 30 to 50 years and for lower-level members from 20 to 30 years. 73 B. Police reform 86. There is an important and much needed effort under way to clean up the work and the image of the police and to develop its technical capabilities. 87. Several attempts at cleaning up the national police have taken place since 2011. However, efforts to address endemic corruption and abuses within the police force have made little progress. The most recent purge was initiated in April 2016 with the establishment of the Special Commission for the Process of Purge and Transformation of the National Police, in response to the public outcry when information was published that the higher ranks of the institution had been involved in the killing of the Chief of the Directorate for Combating Drug Trafficking. The Special Commission was given a one year mandate to assess the members of the entire force, starting at the top. By the end of 2016, it had evaluated 4,934 officers and had terminated the contracts of 2,183, mostly (1,949) as part of an internal restructuring effort. However, files relating to 15 officers were referred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Criminal Investigation by November 2016. In September 2016, the Office established a special unit to support the clean-up process. 88. The clean-up process is ambitious and far-reaching, and in principle a positive step. At the same time, it is important to have a clear legal framework for such an undertaking, including the criteria used to ensure that the system can resist legal and other challenges. A good plan that is poorly implemented can close many doors in the future. 89. The work of the Special Commission is undertaken in parallel with a restructuring of the police, renewed qualification programmes that include training on human rights and the gradual use of force, and a plan to increase the police corps from 14,000 to 26,000 agents by 2019. In addition, a proposed reform to the Organic Law of the National Police and a new Police Career Law were under consideration by the National Congress. A new manual on the use of force was developed in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross, but is not before Congress. C. Militarization 90. One of the main focuses of the response of the Government to violence has been the militarization of public security through the establishment of a series of new measures and 73 16 See A/HRC/32/35/Add.4, p. 15.