A/RES/65/208 6. Urges all States: (a) To take all measures required by international human rights law and international humanitarian law to prevent loss of life, in particular that of children, during public demonstrations, internal and communal violence, civil unrest, public emergencies or armed conflicts and to ensure that the police, law enforcement agents, armed forces and other agents acting on behalf of or with the consent or acquiescence of the State act with restraint and in conformity with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including the principles of proportionality and necessity, and in this regard to ensure that police and law enforcement officials are guided by the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials 8 and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials; 9 (b) To ensure the effective protection of the right to life of all persons under their jurisdiction, to investigate promptly and thoroughly all killings, including those targeted at specific groups of persons, such as racially motivated violence leading to the death of the victim, killings of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities or because of their sexual orientation, killings of persons affected by terrorism or hostage-taking or living under foreign occupation, killings of refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants, street children or members of indigenous communities, killings of persons for reasons related to their activities as human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists or demonstrators, killings committed in the name of passion or in the name of honour, all killings committed for discriminatory reasons on any basis as well as all other cases where a person’s right to life has been violated, to bring those responsible to justice before a competent, independent and impartial judiciary at the national or, where appropriate, international level and to ensure that such killings, including those committed by security forces, police and law enforcement agents, paramilitary groups or private forces, are neither condoned nor sanctioned by State officials or personnel; Affirms the obligation of States, in order to prevent extrajudicial, 7. summary or arbitrary executions, to protect the lives of all persons deprived of their liberty in all circumstances and to investigate and respond to deaths in custody; Urges all States to ensure that persons deprived of their liberty are 8. treated humanely and with full respect for their human rights and that their treatment, including judicial guarantees, and conditions conform to the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners 10 and, where applicable, to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 19494 and the Additional Protocols thereto, of 8 June 1977, 11 in relation to all persons detained in armed conflict, as well as to other pertinent international instruments; 9. Urges States to prevent and, where such situations exist, to end prisoner control of prisons, bearing in mind the obligation of the State to protect human rights, including protection against extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; _______________ 8 Resolution 34/169, annex. See Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, 27 August–7 September 1990: report prepared by the Secretariat (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.91.IV.2), chap. I, sect. B. 10 Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments, Volume I (First Part), Universal Instruments (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.XIV.4 (Vol. I, Part 1)), sect. J, No. 34. 11 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1125, Nos. 17512 and 17513. 9 3