A/HRC/32/36/Add.2 with participants’ ability to assemble within sight and sound of their intended audience. The barricades are also used to isolate assembly participants from each other and the public, such as during the Sewol ferry protests. 36. The Police Agency explained that bus barricades are used in cases where there is a high risk of physical clashes between the police and demonstrators. It is not clear how the risk is assessed and there is no proof that blocking off protest routes de-escalates tensions rather than increasing them. 37. The Special Rapporteur is unconvinced that the use of bus barricades meets the necessity and proportionality requirements under article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Bus barricades are antithetical to the obligation of the authorities to facilitate assemblies. They are not used reactively to manage the conduct of participants, but rather pre-emptively to interfere with the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. That illustrates a prior intention to restrict the free flow of assemblies. 38. Further, the Special Rapporteur wishes to stress that policing assemblies is a demanding task that requires the utmost experience, training and skill. The use of relatively inexperienced, conscripted youth on the front lines of any protests is therefore ill-conceived and potentially dangerous to participants, police and the public. A central tenet of the State obligation to facilitate and respect the rights to peaceful assembly is to ensure that those involved in protecting the exercise of those rights both understand and execute their role in accordance with international human rights standards. 4. Investigation and penalization 39. The Special Rapporteur learned of numerous actions by authorities in the aftermath of gatherings that create a chilling effect on the exercise of the rights to peaceful assembly. They included investigations and arrests of large numbers of participants, the indictment of hundreds of participants for the criminal offence of general obstruction of traffic, prosecution of assembly organizers for allegedly inciting violence and civil suits pursued against them for compensation and damages. Organizers can also be held liable for damages caused by the unlawful behaviour of others. That places an onerous and unreasonable responsibility on organizers (see A/HRC/31/66, para. 26). 40. The case of Park Lae-goon exemplifies the intimidation and harassment that the organizers of peaceful protests face. Park is a member of Coalition 4.16, which consists of families and supporters of the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster. He was indicted on charges of organizing an unlawful protest, the destruction of public goods, general obstruction of traffic and defamation, among others. On 22 January 2016, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Mr. Park to three years’ imprisonment with four years’ probation and 160 hours of community service. He has appealed the decision. 41. Following the “peoples’ rally” co-organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in November 2015, police reportedly began investigations of hundreds of Confederation members, some of whom have been charged. The president of the Confederation, Han Sang-gyun, was charged with offences related to the obstruction of public duty, injury to public officials, the destruction of public goods, and obstruction of traffic among others. He is currently undergoing trial. 42. Charging assembly participants with certain criminal offences, such as the general obstruction of traffic, de facto criminalizes the right to peaceful assembly. Where large numbers of participants turn out, it is virtually impossible to keep roads entirely clear, but if individuals spill over onto the roads they may be charged with obstructing the traffic. The choice to prosecute at all, and even more to charge participants with the serious offence of general obstruction of traffic, conveys a desire by the authorities to discourage assemblies on roads. The Special Rapporteur reiterates that assemblies are an equally legitimate use of 9