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

A/RES/80/194View PDF

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A document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 70Right of peoples to self-determination, published in 2025.

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29 documents · 1999–2025

2025A/RES/80/194Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with earlier document
2024A/RES/79/162Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with earlier document
2024A/HRC/RES/57/8Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with earlier document
2023A/RES/78/191Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with earlier document
2023A/RES/77/206Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determinationCompare with earlier document

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1 entity

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3 topics

Human Rights Violations Mercenaries Private Security Services

What does this mandate say?

22 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the latest report of the Working Group of the Human Rights Council on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination;

Reaffirms that the use of mercenaries and their recruitment, financing, protection and training are causes for grave concern to all States and that they 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 encourage, inter alia, the demand for mercenaries on the global market;

Urges, once again, all States to take the steps necessary 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 are not used for, and that their nationals do not take part in, the recruitment, assembly, financing, training, protection or 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 accordance 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 military assistance or consultancy and security services provided by private companies to establish national regulatory mechanisms for registering and licensing those companies in order to ensure that the 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 done so to consider acceding to or ratifying the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries;

Welcomes the cooperation extended by those countries that have received a visit by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries since the establishment of its mandate 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 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 those countries and the exercise of the right of their peoples to self-determination, and stresses the importance for the Working Group on the use of mercenaries of looking into sources and root causes, as well as the political motivations of mercenaries and for mercenary-related activities;

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 national 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;

Calls upon Member 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;

Requests the Working Group on the use of mercenaries and other experts to continue their participation, including by submitting contributions, in other subsidiary bodies of the Human Rights Council considering issues related to the use of mercenaries and mercenary-related activities in all their forms and manifestations, including private military and security companies;

Requests the Working Group on the use of mercenaries to continue its work with respect to 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 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 and the evolving phenomenon of mercenaries and its related forms;

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

Requests 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 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;

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 and security company, contribute to the work of the open-ended intergovernmental working group, taking into account the initial work done by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries;

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

Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to provide the Working Group on the use of mercenaries 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 on the use of mercenaries to consult States and intergovernmental and non‑governmental organizations on the implementation of the present resolution and to report, with specific recommendations, to the General Assembly at its eighty-first session its findings on the use of mercenaries to undermine the enjoyment of all human rights and to impede the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination;

Decides to consider 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 at its eighty-first session under the item entitled “Right of peoples to self-determination”.

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