Thousands of people around the world have been maimed by rubber bullets, human rights activists state

In a report just published jointly with the Omega Research Foundation, Al Jazeera writes, international human rights activists stated with alarm that the brutal and inhumane methods of the police in suppressing the discontent of citizens led, among other things, to a significant increase in eye injuries or even complete loss of vision in hundreds of people.

These injuries, according to doctors, include ruptures of the eyeball, retinal detachment, as well as fractures of bones and skull, brain injuries, ruptures of internal organs and bleeding, punctures of hearts and lungs from broken ribs, genital injuries and, finally, psychological trauma.

The Chilean National Institute for Human Rights estimates that police actions during anti-government protests in 2019 resulted in more than 440 cases of eye injuries, including eye loss in young people.

Amnesty International experts said that the use of rubber bullets to suppress peaceful protests has become commonplace in the United States.

One of the demonstrators in Minneapolis was taken to a local hospital, where he told doctors that he lost consciousness after his eye "seemed to explode" from the impact of a rubber bullet." The wounded man was operated on by removing the eyeball.

In Palestine, Amnesty International said that despite the official UN ban, Israeli forces continue to regularly use rubber-coated metal bullets against the Arab population.

A recent report by the UN Human Rights Council notes that only during the protests in Palestine in 2018, 19 people were killed, more than 440 were injured by rubber bullets fired by Israeli security services.

Amnesty International said it has evidence of the use of tear gas grenades against demonstrators in Colombia, Ecuador, France, Guinea, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, Peru, Sudan, Tunisia and Venezuela. As a result – dozens of dead, hundreds of wounded.

International human rights activists believe that it is time for the world community to put an end to the arbitrariness on the part of law enforcement officers against participants of peaceful demonstrations. And manufacturers of lead batons, rubber bullets and tear gas should be banned from their business in accordance with the requirements of the UN and the Declaration of Fundamental Human Rights.