A/HRC/31/66 taken before a decision to disperse (including de-escalation measures), and who may issue a dispersal order; (h) Effective systems for monitoring and reporting on the use of force must be established by the State, and relevant information, including statistics on when and against whom force is used, must be easily accessible to the public; (i) The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights should convene an expert group to examine the application of the international human rights framework to less-lethal weapons and unmanned systems for law enforcement purposes, including with a focus on their use in the context of assemblies; (j) Effective controls should be established at national and international levels prohibiting the trade in policing and crowd-control equipment, including surveillance technology, where a serious risk exists that they could, in the context of assemblies, facilitate unlawful killings, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or other human rights violations or abuses. F. Every person shall enjoy the right to observe, monitor and record assemblies 68. All persons enjoy the right to observe, and by extension monitor, assemblies. This right is derived from the right to seek and receive information, which is protected under article 19 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The concept of monitoring encapsulates not only the act of observing an assembly, but also the active collection, verification and immediate use of information to address human rights problems.50 69. A monitor is generally defined as any non-participant third-party individual or group whose primary aim is to observe and record the actions and activities taking place at public assemblies.51 National human rights institutions, ombudsmen, intergovernmental entities and civil society organizations all commonly act as monitors. Journalists, including citizen journalists, play an important role.52 70. States have an obligation to protect the rights of assembly monitors. This includes respecting and facilitating the right to observe and monitor all aspects of an assembly, subject to the narrow permissible restrictions outlined in article 19 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Monitors retain all other human rights. The State should fully investigate any human rights violation or abuse against monitors, and should pursue prosecution and provide adequate remedy. The protections afforded to monitors apply irrespective of whether an assembly is peaceful. 71. Everyone — whether a participant, monitor or observer — shall enjoy the right to record an assembly, which includes the right to record the law enforcement operation. This also includes the right to record an interaction in which he or she is being recorded by a State agent — sometimes referred to as the right to “record back”. The State should protect this right. Confiscation, seizure and/or destruction of notes and visual or audio recording equipment without due process should be prohibited and punished. 50 51 52 16 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Training Manual on Human Rights Monitoring (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.01.XIV.2), para. 28. OSCE/ODIHR, Guidelines, para. 201. See, for example, OSCE, “Special report: handling of the media during political demonstrations” (2007).