Police compliance with measures designed to protect human rights, especially civil and political rights, is required, as is political neutrality. To these imperatives should be added the requirement for compliance with humanitarian standards, such that not only human rights but victims of disorder are protected. Even during the most intense and violent conflict, policing by consent remains the ideal. This ideal is based in the right to participative and representative government contained in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Policing by consent in the context of civil disorders means that formal and informal community contacts established prior to the disorder are maintained and used to mitigate and quell the disorder. It also means that when paramilitary equipment and styles of policing are necessary, they will be implemented within a framework of publicly declared rules and guidelines based on the principles of necessity and proportionality. Further, policing by consent requires that police facilitate debate and action for social and political change in accordance with the requirements for participative and representative government. Such debate and action may help alleviate civil disorder. 35 references