Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding
the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination
A/RES/69/163
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 selfdetermination;
5.
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;
6.
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;
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; 10
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 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;
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;
_______________
10
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2163, No. 37789.
3/5