RightRespect - Nicole Skibola
The Working Group on the use of Mercenaries at the United Nations last Thursday drew attention to the alarming expansion of private military security companies (PMSCs) beyond the zone of conflict. While fellow NGOs at the Working Group meeting debated as to whether or not the newly drafted Convention on Mercenaries should even exist (as a symbolic gesture of protest against the very existence of PMSCs), the United Nations continues to join the ranks of PMSC clientele.
Despite internal criticism, the United Nations has been one of the latest numbers of nonprofit organizations to patronize PMSCs. Foreign Policy Magazine reports that the U.N. has been in consultations with a British security firm to send additional security forces to protect them in Afghanistan and the U.N.’s top security official, Gregory Starr has also been advocating an increase in the use of private security firms in Pakistan, where U.N. relief workers have been the target of kidnappings and killings, according to U.N. officials.
Addressing increasing security issues in connection with peacekeeping operations in zones being targeted by combatants or terrorists raises some difficult ethical questions. Nick Horne, a former U.N. political officer, stated with regard to the increase of private forces in Afghanistan, “As a former beneficiary of this policy, I welcomed it. The gurkhas are professional, polite and discrete. It also frees up Afghan police for policing duties. Obviously it costs money — I don’t know how much — but it does enable the U.N. to continue operating in an increasingly hostile environment.”
While security concerns are completely legitimate for the U.N., as well as other humanitarian organizations, it is difficult to condone the continued proliferation of PMSCs if they continue to function with no accountability. Under the current terms of international human rights law, PMSCs have managed to escape many of the terms of governance. Even the term “mercenary” refers to a combatant who illegally takes part in a conflict – a term inapplicable to modern day PMSCs that legally operate as businesses. Uniform human rights governance norms and accountability mechanisms have also failed to be codified into any internationally recognizable licensing or contract terms, despite the global operation of virtually every private security organization. Finally, PMSCs have managed to elude liability for human rights abuses in wartime and humanitarian operations as international conventions have targeted state actors alone and many of these companies have been indemnified or immunized by their state contracting parties.
As a $120 billion industry a year in the U.S. alone, PMSCs are not going away anytime soon. Right Respect has advocated for greater transparency in the contracting and functioning of private military organizations. The U.N. and other nonprofit organizations should be the leaders in creating greater transparency by making their contracts publicly available. It is only with increased access to information around the use and growth of PMSCs that the industry can be eventually regulated under an international and domestic framework. Transparency should be the first step in showcasing best practices, as well as uncovering missteps and abuses in private security contracting.