The Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination

A/HRC/RES/21/8No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2012.

What other versions does this mandate have?

12 versions · 2009–2021

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/48/5

2021A/HRC/RES/48/5The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationLatestCompare with previous version
2019A/HRC/RES/42/9The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with previous version
2018A/HRC/RES/39/5The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with previous version
2017A/HRC/RES/36/3The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/33/4The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Human Rights Violations Mercenaries Private Security Services Self-Determination of Peoples Working Groups

What does this mandate say?

23 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that the use of mercenaries and their recruitment, financing, protection and training are causes for grave concern to all States and violate the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations;

Recognizes that armed conflicts, terrorism, arms trafficking and covert operations by third Powers encourage, inter alia, the demand for mercenaries on the global market;

Urges once again all States to take the necessary steps and to exercise the utmost vigilance against the threat posed by the activities of mercenaries, and to take legislative measures to ensure that their territories and other territories under their control, as well as their nationals, are not used for the recruitment, assembly, financing, training, protection and transit of mercenaries for the planning of activities designed to impede the right to self-determination, to overthrow the Government of any State or to dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent States conducting themselves in compliance with the right of peoples to self-determination;

Requests all States to exercise the utmost vigilance against any kind of recruitment, training, hiring or financing of mercenaries by private companies offering international military consultancy and security services, and to impose a specific ban on such companies intervening in armed conflicts or actions to destabilize constitutional regimes;

Encourages States that import the military assistance, consultancy and security services provided by private companies to establish regulatory national mechanisms for the registering and licensing of those companies in order to ensure that imported services provided by those private companies neither impede the enjoyment of human rights nor violate human rights in the recipient country;

Emphasizes its utmost concern about the impact of the activities of private military and security companies on the enjoyment of human rights, in particular when operating in armed conflicts, and notes that private military and security companies and their personnel are rarely held accountable for violations of human rights;

Calls upon all States that have not yet become parties to the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries to consider taking the necessary action to do so;

Welcomes the cooperation extended by those countries that received a visit by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, and the adoption by some States of national legislation that restricts the recruitment, assembly, financing, training and transit of mercenaries;

Invites States to investigate the possibility of mercenary involvement whenever and wherever criminal acts of a terrorist nature occur;

Condemns mercenary activities in developing countries in various parts of the world, in particular in areas of conflict, and the threat they pose to the integrity of and respect for the constitutional order of these countries and the exercise of the right to self-determination of their peoples, and stresses the importance for the Working Group of looking into sources and root causes, as well as the political motivations of mercenaries and for mercenary-related activities;

Calls upon the international community and all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law, to cooperate with and assist the judicial prosecution of those accused of mercenary activities in transparent, open and fair trials;

Acknowledges with appreciation the work and contributions made by the Working Group, including its research activities, and takes note of its latest report;

Welcomes the holding of the second session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group to consider the possibility of elaborating an international regulatory framework on the regulation, monitoring and oversight of the activities of private military and security companies, and expresses satisfaction at the participation of experts, including of the members of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries, as resource persons at the above-mentioned session, and requests the Working Group and other experts to continue to do so;

Takes note of the note by the Secretariat on the report of the second session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group;

Recommends that all Member States, including those confronted with the phenomenon of private military and security companies, as contracting States, States of operations, home States or States whose nationals are employed to work for a private military or security company contribute to the work of the open-ended intergovernmental working group, taking into account the work done by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries;

Requests the Working Group on the use of mercenaries to continue the work already done by previous mandate holders on the strengthening of the international legal framework for the prevention and sanction of the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries, taking into account the proposal for a new legal definition of a mercenary drafted by the Special Rapporteur on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination in his report submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixtieth session;

Reiterates its requests to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as a matter of priority, to publicize the adverse effects of the activities of mercenaries and private companies offering military assistance, consultancy and other military and security-related services on the international market on the right of peoples to self-determination and, when requested and where necessary, to render advisory services to States that are affected by those activities;

Requests the Working Group to continue to monitor mercenaries and mercenary-related activities in all their forms and manifestations, including private military and security companies, in different parts of the world, including instances of protection provided by Governments to individuals involved in mercenary activities, and to establish a database of individuals convicted of mercenary activities;

Also requests the Working Group to continue to study and identify sources and causes, emerging issues, manifestations and trends regarding mercenaries or mercenary-related activities and their impact on human rights, particularly on the right of peoples to self-determination;

Urges all States to cooperate fully with the Working Group in the fulfilment of its mandate;

Requests the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner to provide the Working Group with all the assistance and support necessary for the fulfilment of its mandate, both professional and financial, including through the promotion of cooperation between the Working Group and other components of the United Nations system that deal with countering mercenary-related activities, in order to meet the demands of its current and future activities;

Requests the Working Group to consult States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and other relevant actors of civil society in the implementation of the present resolution, and to report its findings on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session and to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-fourth session;

Decides to continue its consideration of this matter under the same agenda item at its twenty-fourth session.

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