263. The Court had held in this regard that the exceptional circumstances under which firearms and lethal force may be used shall be determined by the law and restrictively construed, so that they are used to the minimum extent possible in all cases, but never exceeding that use "absolutely necessary" in relation to the force or threat to be repelled. 318 264. The American Convention does not provide a catalog of cases or circumstances in which a death caused by the use of force may be considered justified because it is absolutely necessary in the circumstances of the specific case; therefore, the Court has drawn on a variety of international instruments on this subject, particularly the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials319 and the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials320 to provide content to the obligations deriving from Article 4 of the Convention. 321 The Basic Principles on the Use of Force state, “Law enforcement officials shall not use firearms against persons except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting their authority, or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives. In any event, intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.” 322 Unquestionably, international standards and this Court’s case law have established that “state agents must distinguish between persons who, by their actions, constitute an imminent threat of death or serious injury and persons who do not present such a threat, and use force only against the former.”323 265. In consideration of all this, the Court has stated that ensuring appropriate measures for action if it should prove essential to use force requires upholding the principles of legality, absolute necessity and proportionality, in the following terms:324 Legality: the use of force must be targeted at achieving a legitimate goal, within an existing regulatory framework that guides the form of action in a given situation.325 Absolute necessity: the use of force should be limited to situations in which no other means exist or are available for safeguarding the life and safety of the person or situation being protected, depending on the circumstances of the case.326 Cf. Case of Montero Aranguren et al. (Detention Center of Catia) v. Venezuela, supra, para. 68, and Case of Zambrano Vélez et al. v. Ecuador, supra, para. 84. 318 Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. Adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, 27 August to 7 September 1990. 319 Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. Adopted by United Nations General Assembly resolution 34/169 of 17 December 1979. 320 Cf. Case of Montero Aranguren et al. (Detention Center of Catia) v. Venezuela, supra, paras. 68 and 69, and Case of Nadege Dorzema et al. v. Dominican Republic, supra, paras. 78 and 84. 321 322 Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, Principle No. 9. 323 Case of Zambrano Vélez et al. v. Ecuador, supra, para. 85. Cf. Case of Nadege Dorzema et al. v. Dominican Republic, supra, para. 85. See also, Case of Landaeta Mejías Brothers et al. v. Venezuela, supra. 324 325 and 11. 326 Cf. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, Principles No. 1, 7, 8 Cf. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, Principle No. 4.