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

A/RES/59/178View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 104 Right of peoples to self-determination, published in 2005.

What else is in this group?

30 documents · 1999–2026

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2026).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2026	A/HRC/RES/63/5	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,835	–
2025	A/RES/80/194	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,724	–
2024	A/RES/79/162	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,722	–
2024	A/HRC/RES/57/8	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,838	–
2023	A/RES/78/191	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,724	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

What’s in this document?

19 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the brief report prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the question of the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination;⁶

⁶See A/59/191.

Welcomes the appointment of Shaista Shameem as Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, and encourages her to continue and further advance the valuable work done and the important contributions made by Enrique Bernales Ballesteros in the sixteen years of his mandate;

Reaffirms that the use of mercenaries and their recruitment, financing 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 conflict, terrorism, arms trafficking and covert operations by third Powers, inter alia, encourage the demand for mercenaries on the global market;

Urges all States to take the necessary steps and to exercise the utmost vigilance against the menace 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 and transit of mercenaries for the planning of activities designed to impede the right of peoples to self-determination, to destabilize or 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, as well as to impose a specific ban on such companies intervening in armed conflicts or actions to destabilize constitutional regimes;

Welcomes the entry into force of the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries,⁷ and calls upon all States that have not yet done so to consider taking the necessary action to accede to or ratify the Convention;

⁷United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2163, No. 37789.

Welcomes also the cooperation extended by those countries that have received visits from the Special Rapporteur and the adoption by some States of national legislation that restricts the recruitment, assembly, financing, training and transit of mercenaries;

Condemns recent mercenary activities in Africa, and commends the African Governments on their collaboration in thwarting those illegal actions, which posed a threat to the integrity of and respect for the constitutional order of those countries and the exercise of the right of their peoples to self-determination;

Calls upon States to investigate the possibility of mercenary involvement whenever and wherever criminal acts of a terrorist nature occur and to bring to trial those found responsible or to consider their extradition, if so requested, in accordance with domestic law and applicable bilateral or international treaties;

Condemns any form of impunity granted to perpetrators of mercenary activities and to those responsible for the use, recruitment, financing and training of mercenaries, and urges all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law, to bring them, without distinction, to justice;

Requests the new Special Rapporteur to circulate to States and consult with them on the new proposal for a legal definition of a mercenary drafted by the former Special Rapporteur⁸ and to report her findings to the Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly;

⁸See E/CN.4/2004/15, para. 47.

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner, as a matter of priority, to publicize the adverse effects of the activities of mercenaries 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;

Also requests the Office of the High Commissioner to convene a third meeting of experts on traditional and new forms of mercenary activities as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, respecting the main objectives defined in paragraph 16 of Commission on Human Rights resolution 2004/5;1

Requests the Special Rapporteur to continue to take into account, in the discharge of her mandate, the fact that mercenary activities continue to occur in many parts of the world and are taking on new forms, manifestations and modalities, and, in this regard, requests her to pay particular attention to the impact of the activities of private companies offering military assistance, consultancy and security services on the international market on the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination;

Urges all States to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of her mandate;

Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide the Special Rapporteur with all the necessary assistance and support for the fulfilment of her mandate, both professional and financial, including through the promotion of cooperation between the Special Rapporteur and other components of the United Nations system that deal with countering mercenary-related activities;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to consult States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in the implementation of the present resolution and to report, with specific recommendations, to the General Assembly at its sixtieth session her findings on the use of mercenaries to undermine the right of peoples to self-determination;

Decides to consider at its sixtieth session the question of the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination under the item entitled “Right of peoples to self-determination”.

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

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What else is in this group?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents