Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding
the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination
A/RES/72/158
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 a nd independent States
conducting themselves in accordance with the right of peoples to self -determination;
5.
Requests all States to exercise the utmost vigilance against any kind of
recruitment, training, hiring or financing of mercenaries by private com panies
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;
6.
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 th e enjoyment
of human rights nor violate human rights in the recipient country;
7.
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;
8.
Calls upon all States that have not yet done so to consider taking the action
necessary to accede to or ratify the International Convention against the Recruitment,
Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries; 13
9.
Welcomes the cooperation extended by those countries that received a visit
by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries and the adoption by some States of
national legislation that restricts the recruitment, assembly, financing, training and
transit of mercenaries;
10. Condemns recent mercenary activities in developing countries in various
parts of the world, in particular in areas of confli ct, 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;
11. 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;
12. 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;
13. 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;
14. Recalls the holding of the sixth 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, expresses satisfaction at the
participation of experts, including the members of the Working Group on the use of
mercenaries, as resource persons at the above-mentioned session, and requests the
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