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Although Panama has been a State Party to the Convention against Torture since 1987, there are still complaints of acts of torture and of the use of firearms in prison by law enforcement, which have led to hundreds of deaths since 2013. Security forces often arbitrarily arrest protesters in demonstrations and use excessive force against them. There is a lack of investigations against perpetrators of crimes of torture and ill-treatment and Panama does not respect international standards in terms of prosecution of these crimes as provided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.