A/HRC/39/CRP.2 the Updated Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights through Action to Combat Impunity35, and the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law. 36 In November 2012, the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Myanmar, unanimously adopted the ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights. Despite the controversy surrounding its drafting process and the narrow formulation of some of its provisions in comparison with international norms and standards37, it remains a useful instrument to further delineate the human rights obligations that ASEAN member States themselves accept as binding on them. 45. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities is one of the main reference documents for minority rights.38 It recognises that persons belonging to minorities have the right to the protection by states of their existence and their national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity (art. 1), the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, and to use their own language in private and in public (art. 2.1), the right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life (art. 2.2), the right to participate effectively in decisions which affect them on the national and regional levels (art. 2.3), the right to establish and maintain their own associations (art. 2.4), and the freedom to exercise their rights, individually as well as in community with other members of their group, without discrimination (art. 3). States are also to protect and promote the rights of persons belonging to minorities by taking measures to ensure that they may exercise fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality before the law (art. 4.1). In its 2005 Commentary, the United Nations Working Group on Minorities observed that “minority protection is based on four requirements: protection of the existence, non-exclusion, non-discrimination and nonassimilation of the groups concerned”.39 46. The 1979 United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the 1990 Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms for Law Enforcement Officials provide guidance to States on the use of force and firearms by any law enforcement official.40 The Code of Conduct stipulates in article 3 that law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty. The Basic Principles set out the core parameters to determine the lawfulness of use of force by law enforcement personnel and establish standards for accountability and review. Any use of force by law enforcement officials should be in accordance with the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution, and accountability. These instruments, and in particular the provisions regarding the use of force in relation to the right 35 36 37 38 39 40 Recognised in a consensus resolution of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2005 (E/CN.4/2005/102/Add.1). Adopted by General Assembly resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005. See e.g. M. Davies, “An Agreement to Disagree: The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration and the Absence of Regional Identity in Southeast Asia”, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, vol. 33(3), 2014, 107-129; A. Bloed and N. Girard, “ASEAN – Background and Human Rights Mechanisms”, in The United Nations Declaration on Minorities – an Academic Account on the Occasion of its 20th Anniversary (1992-2012), U. Caruso and R. Hofmann, eds. (Leiden, Brill/Nijhoff, 2015), pp. 311-313. Adopted by General Assembly resolution 47/135 (18 December 1992). E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2005/2, para. 23. The Code of Conduct was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979, and the Basic Principles were adopted at the 8th United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1990. On 18 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 45/166 welcoming the Principles and inviting States to respect them. 15