A/HRC/29/46 except to the extent permitted by the Constitution and laws. The guidance note only applies to federal agencies and not to state and local authorities, which conduct the vast majority of the law enforcement functions, but the updated version now applies to Department of Homeland Security and intelligence activities. The Special Rapporteur is pleased with this updated and comprehensive version and hopes that it may serve as a model of good practice for other authorities, as well as in other countries. 47. In the United States of America, states and local authorities have enacted legislation that outlaws racial profiling while requiring data collection. At the federal level, the End Racial Profiling Act was introduced into the Senate in May 2013; at the time of the writing of the present report, it was still under discussion. This Act would prohibit law enforcement personnel and agencies from engaging in racial profiling and would require federal law enforcement agencies to maintain adequate policies and procedures to eliminate racial and ethnic profiling and to cease the existing practices that at present allow it to continue. The Act would also require state or local government entities or tribal councils applying for grants or federal funding to certify that they maintain adequate policies and procedures for eliminating racial and ethnic profiling and have eliminated any such existing practices. 38 Finally, the Act would authorize the Attorney-General to award grants and contracts for the collection of data relating to racial and ethnic profiling and the development of good practices and systems to eliminate such practices. 48. With regard to Sweden, the Aliens Act provides that a person may not be stopped or checked solely on account of his or her skin colour, name, language or other similar characteristic. In that connection, standards and guidance can provide officers with clear instructions on permissible versus impermissible uses of ethnicity, race and national origin in conducting their work.39 2. Policy and institutional standards 49. In some countries, codes of conduct have been developed for law enforcement agents which prohibit the use of ethnicity, religion and national origin in targeting persons as suspects, which also include the requirement that law enforcement officers base their decisions on reasonable suspicion.40 In France, the code of conduct of the national police prohibits discrimination and calls for polite and respectful treatment of the public and anyone apprehended. This code applies to all national law enforcements officials, including those carrying out immigration and counter-terrorism functions.41 Police codes of conduct set out similar standards in Austria and in Northern Ireland. 50. The Special Rapporteur has been informed that a number of good practices based on behavioural profiles have been implemented in immigration enforcement. This is important in focusing officers’ attention on behavioural risk factors rather than on assumptions about nationality, race or ethnicity. For instance, Brussels Airport’s information-based behavioural profiling system is an example of an intelligence-based system of profiles that uses behavioural factors. 51. The use of strategic action plans appears to be among the positive steps taken by States in response to an identified problem; such plans are sometimes politically mandated but are also undertaken by senior law enforcement leadership. They represent a political 38 39 40 41 14 Available from https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/1038 (accessed on 17 February 2015). Aliens Act (Utlanninglslag) (2005:716). Open Society Foundations, Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union: A Handbook of Good Practices (New York, 2012), p. 38. Commission nationale pour la déontologie de la sécurité, saisine No. 2009.77.