14/ POLICING ASSEMBLIES IN AFRICA: Guidelines for the Policing of Assemblies by Law Enforcement Officials in Africa PART 3 PREPARATION AND PLANNING FOR THE POLICING OF ASSEMBLIES 9. Preparation for assemblies 9.1. Recognising the important expressive role that spontaneous assembly can play in a democracy, law enforcement agencies must have in place processes and procedures to ensure the facilitation of spontaneous assemblies, including in relation to known or scheduled political or social events, commemorative days, and in anticipation of decisions made by courts, parliaments and other state authorities. Lack of prior notification of an assembly does not render an assembly unlawful and should not form the sole basis of a decision by law enforcement officials to disperse an assembly. 9.2. As soon as practicable after knowledge is gained of an intended or actual assembly, law enforcement officials should take all reasonable steps to identify and communicate with assembly organisers and/or participants to prepare the facilitation of the assembly in accordance with these Guidelines. 10. Information gathering by law enforcement officials 10.1. To facilitate the right to assemble freely with others, law enforcement officials require accurate information to conduct risk assessments and contingency planning, and to plan for the necessary and proportionate deployment and equipping of law enforcement officials. Information may be collected through a system for the prior notification of assemblies, through communication between law enforcement officials and assembly organisers, observers or third parties, and through law enforcement information and intelligence gathering techniques that comply with regional and international human rights standards. 10.2. The collection and processing of information, and the tactics permitted to be used by law enforcement officials in pursuit of this objective, must be regulated by law in a manner consistent with the right of access to information, the right to privacy, the presumption of innocence, and the guarantees of procedural due process pursuant to regional and international human rights standards. Any information collected and processed by law enforcement officials must be limited to what is necessary and proportionate to a legitimate APCOF Guidelines on policing assemblies TEXT.indd 14 12/04/2017 17:07:43