GENEVA (27 October 2014) – Private military and security companies (PMSCs) personnel must always be held accountable for violations committed under international human rights and humanitarian law, has said today the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries, reiterating its call for global regulation of private security.
The expert body’s appeal comes seven years after the notorious killing of 17 Iraqi civilians, including children, by Blackwater personnel in Baghdad’s Nissour Square. On 22 October, four private military contractors involved in the killings were prosecuted and convicted of manslaughter and murder by a US federal jury.
“We welcome the fact that prosecutions were finally brought, putting an end to the cycle of impunity that prevailed since 2007 and aggravated the suffering of victims and their families,” said Patricia Arias, who currently heads the five-strong group of independent human rights experts.
“However, such examples of accountability are the exception rather than the rule,” she stressed. “The difficulty in bringing a prosecution in this case shows the need for an international treaty to address the increasingly significant role that private military companies play in transnational conflicts.”
The Working Group has focused specific attention on the need for an international Convention* to effectively regulate corporate actors whose operations pose potential threats to human rights. “The outsourcing of security to these companies by States create risks for human rights, hence the need to regulate their activities,” Ms. Arias said.
Given the transnational nature of many private military and security companies’ activities and the flexible corporate structures in the industry, the Group has advocated for the international community to reach some consensus on the minimum standards of regulation of PMSCs.
“The prosecutions of Blackwater contractors signal that human rights violations committed by private military and security companies cannot remain unpunished, and provide a strong deterrent against their repetition,” the human rights expert noted.
“There can be no justice without effective accountability and redress mechanisms for victims,” she highlighted. “States have a responsibility to ensure that victims and their families have equal and effective access to justice, as well as adequate, effective and prompt reparation for the harm suffered”.
(*) Read the Working Group’s draft of a possible Convention on Private Military and Security Companies: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Mercenaries/WGMercenaries/Pages/WGMercenariesIndex.aspx
