Mandate of 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

A/HRC/RES/7/21No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, published in 2008.

What other versions does this mandate have?

3 versions · 2008–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/60/5

2025A/HRC/RES/60/5Mandate of 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-DeterminationLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/51/13Mandate of 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-DeterminationCompare with previous version
2008A/HRC/RES/7/21Mandate of 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

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

What subjects does this mandate have?

15 topics

Advisory Services Conferences Consultations Definition Guidelines Human Rights Human Rights Violations Latin America Mercenaries Principles Private Security Services Regional Cooperation Self-Determination of Peoples Standards Working Groups

What does this mandate say?

12 operative paragraphs

Under the terms of paragraphs 2, 3, 7, 9 and 10 of its resolution 7/21, the Council:

Decided to extend the mandate of the Working Group for a period of three years;

Also decided to authorize the Working Group to hold three sessions per year of five working days each, two in Geneva and one in New York, in fulfilment of the mandate outlined in its resolution;

Requested OHCHR to inform the Council, in a timely manner, of the dates and places for the convening of the other regional governmental consultations on this matter, in conformity with paragraph 15 of General Assembly resolution 62/145, bearing in mind that this process may lead to the holding of a high-level round table of States, under the auspices of the United Nations, to discuss the fundamental question of the role of the State as holder of the monopoly of the use of force, with the objective of facilitating a critical understanding of the responsibilities of the different actors, including private military and security companies, in the current context, and their respective obligations for the protection and promotion of human rights and in reaching a common understanding as to which additional regulations and controls were needed at the international level;

Requested the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide the Working Group with all the necessary assistance and support 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;

Requested the Working Group to consult States, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and other relevant actors of civil society in the implementation of the 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-third session and to the Council in 2009, in accordance with its annual programme of work.

Pursuant to the adoption of the resolution by the Council, the total cost to implement the activities called for in the resolution is estimated at $656,300 per annum or $1,312,600 per biennium, as reflected in the table below.

Table 1

Resource requirements estimated at $646,900, representing almost half of the total requirements as indicated above, have been provided in the programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009, to implement some of the activities called for in the resolution, as follows:

The balance of the resource requirements estimated at $665,700 to implement the remaining activities called for in the resolution is as follows:

Although it is anticipated that an additional amount of $665,700 will be required under sections 2, 23, 28 D and 28 E of the programme budget for the biennium 2008-2009, a preliminary review leads the Secretariat to assume that some absorption of the estimated

requirements is possible. The Secretariat will seek to identify areas from which resources can be redeployed to meet the requirements in the biennium 2008-2009. At the time the General Assembly reviews the question of the revised estimates resulting from decisions taken by the Human Rights Council at its seventh session, it is anticipated that the Secretariat would be in a position to inform the General Assembly on how to meet the additional requirements.

Since the period for renewal of the mandate extends into the biennium 2010-2011, the requirements for that period will be considered in the context of the preparation of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2010-2011.

With regard to paragraph 9, attention is also drawn to the provisions of section VI of General Assembly resolution 45/248 B of 21 December 1990, and subsequent resolutions, the most recent of which is resolution 62/236 of 22 December 2007, in which the Assembly reaffirmed that the Fifth Committee is the appropriate Main Committee of the Assembly entrusted with responsibilities for administrative and budgetary matters and reaffirmed the role of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

Paragraph content is machine-extracted from UN documents. For authoritative content, please refer to the official UN document.

Who created this mandate?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What does this mandate say?

Table 1

Table of contents