Police use of rubber bullets and other projectiles against peaceful protesters has become increasingly routine worldwide, leading to many eye injuries and even deaths, Amnesty International warned on Today.
The London-based group called for better global regulation of the trade and use of such policing equipment, also called “less lethal weapons”, after research in more than 30 countries over the past five years.
“Thousands of protesters and bystanders have been maimed and dozens killed by the often reckless and disproportionate use of less lethal law enforcement weaponry,” it said in a new report titled “My Eye Exploded.”
These included rubber bullets, rubberised buckshot, and tear gas grenades fired directly at demonstrators in south and central America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States.
