de Janeiro, namely the Pan American Games in 2007 and the FIFA World Cup in 2014. Tens of thousands of military and security officers were deployed around Rio de Janeiro. The number of people killed by the police in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the immediate run-up to the games between April and June increased by 103% compared to the same period in 2015. During the Olympic Games (5-21 August), police operations intensified in specific areas of Rio de Janeiro, including the favelas of Acari, Cidade de Deus, Borel, Manguinhos, Alemão, Maré, Del Castilho and Cantagalo. Residents reported hours of intensive shootings and human rights abuses including unlawful searches of homes, threats and physical assaults. The police admitted to killing at least 12 people during the Games in the city of Rio de Janeiro and to engaging in 217 shootings during police operations in the state of Rio de Janeiro.2 During the Olympic torch relay throughout the country, peaceful protests in Angra dos Reis and Duque de Caxias – both in Rio de Janeiro state – were met with unnecessary and excessive use of force by the police. Rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas were used indiscriminately against peaceful protesters and passers-by, including children. On 10 May, the so-called “General Law of the Olympics” (13.284/2016) was signed by President Rousseff, amid concerns that it might impose undue restrictions to freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, contrary to international human rights standards. Under the provisions of the new law, dozens of people were expelled from sports facilities for wearing T-shirts with slogans, carrying flags, or other signs of protest during the first days of the Games. On 8 August, a federal court ruled against the prohibition of peaceful protests inside the Olympic facilities. On 5 August, the day of the opening ceremony, a peaceful protest over the negative impacts of the Games took place near Maracanã stadium, Rio de Janeiro, and was repressed with unnecessary force by the police, who used tear gas to disperse 92 protesters in a square where children were playing. Most police officers policing the protest were not properly identified as such. On 12 August, also near Maracanã stadium, a protest led mainly by students was severely repressed by the military police, who used unnecessary and excessive force. Around 50 protesters, mostly under the age of 18, were detained and one was injured. At the end of the year some of the detainees were being investigated under the Fan Defence Statute, which makes it a crime to disturb order or provoke violence within a 5km radius of a sports facility. UNLAWFUL KILLINGS Killings by the police remained high and increased in some states. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, 811 people were killed by the police between January and November. There were reports of several police operations which resulted in killings, most of them in favelas. A few measures were adopted to curb police violence in Rio de Janeiro but had yet to produce an impact. Following a resolution from the National Council of Public Prosecution, on 5 January the Public Prosecution Office of Rio de Janeiro state created a working group to oversee police activities and the investigation of killings committed by the police. The Civil Police announced that the investigations of all cases of killings by the police would be progressively transferred to the specialized homicide division. Most cases of killings by the police remained unpunished. Twenty years after the unlawful killing of a two-year-old during a military police operation in 1996 in the favela of Acari, Rio de Janeiro city, no one had been held to account. On 15 April the statute of limitations for the crime expired. In October the first public hearing with regard to the killings of 26 people during police operations in the favela Nova Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro city, in October 1994 and May 1995 was held before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The killings had yet to be investigated and nobody had been brought to justice. Amnesty International Report 2016/17