UN Use of Private Military and Security Companies

UN Use of Private Military and Security Companies
Author: Åse Gilje Østensen
Publisher: Ubiquity Press
Total Pages: 83
Release: 2011-11-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1911529307

Although subject to little discussion, the UN has increasingly paid private military and security companies (PMSCs) for a range of services in the areas of humanitarian affairs, peacebuilding and development. However, this practice has rarely translated into coherent policies or guidelines that could guide the UN in setting standards or ensuring responsible contracting procedures. This paper explores UN demand for PMSCs and identifies the need for a more proactive, sensitive and deliberate political approach in order to avoid potential pitfalls associated with involving PMSCs in the delivery of UN tasks.

Private Military and Security Companies

Private Military and Security Companies
Author: Thomas Jäger
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 489
Release: 2009-04-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3531903136

Private Sicherheits- und Militärunternehmen erleben seit den 1990er Jahren einen außerordentlichen Boom und sind derzeit eines der spannendsten Phänomene in den internationalen Beziehungen. Die Palette der von ihnen angebotenen Dienstleistungen ist groß. Sie reichen von logistischer Unterstützung über Aufklärung bis hin zu Kampfeinsätzen. Zu ihren Kunden zählen Regierungen, Wirtschaftsunternehmen, internationale Organisationen, NGOs, humanitäre Organisationen sowie Privatpersonen. Gegenwärtig lässt sich an den Auseinandersetzungen im Irak sowohl die Aktualität wie auch die Brisanz ihres Einsatzes illustrieren, gibt es doch Anzeichen dafür, dass Beschäftigte solcher Unternehmen u.a. in die Folterung von Gefangenen verwickelt sind. Die Beiträge des Sammelbandes aus der Feder nationaler wie internationaler Expertinnen und Experten beschreiben und analysieren verschiedene Typen von privaten Sicherheits- und Militärunternehmens, ihre Dienstleistungen und die Umstände, die ihren Boom befördert haben. Sie diskutieren die Vor- wie auch die Nachteile ihres Einsatzes und beschreiben Instrumente, die die Tätigkeit dieser Unternehmen stärker reglementieren und kontrollieren könnten.

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and the Quest for Accountability

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) and the Quest for Accountability
Author: George Andreopoulos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2019-03-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000022536

Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have constituted a perennial feature of the security landscape. Yet, it is their involvement in and conduct during the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have transformed the outsourcing of security services into such a pressing public policy and world-order issue. The PMSCs’ ubiquitous presence in armed conflict situations, as well as in post-conflict reconstruction, their diverse list of clients (governments in the developed and developing world, non-state armed groups, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and international corporations) and, in the context of armed conflict situations, involvement in instances of gross misconduct, have raised serious accountability issues. The prominence of PMSCs in conflict zones has generated critical questions concerning the very concept of security and the role of private force, a rethinking of "essential governmental functions," a rearticulation of the distinction between public/private and global/local in the context of the creation of new forms of "security governance," and a consideration of the relevance, as well as limitations, of existing regulatory frameworks that include domestic and international law (in particular international human rights law and international humanitarian law). This book critically examines the growing role of PMSCs in conflict and post-conflict situations, as part of a broader trend towards the outsourcing of security functions. Particular emphasis is placed on key moral, legal, and political considerations involved in the privatization of such functions, on the impact of outsourcing on security governance, and on the main challenges confronting efforts to hold PMSCs accountable through a combination of formal and informal, domestic as well as international, regulatory mechanisms and processes. It will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, practitioners and advocates for a more transparent and humane security order. This book was published as a special issue of Criminal Justice Ethics.

Private Military and Security Companies and the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries

Private Military and Security Companies and the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries
Author: José L. Gómez del Prado
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:

The Working Group on Mercenaries, one of the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council, has been entrusted to monitor the impact of the activities of private military and security companies (PMSCs) on the enjoyment of human rights and to prepare draft international basic principles that encourage respect for human rights on the part of those companies. The number of private security and military companies which operate domestically and internationally is increasing due largely to the outsourcing of governmental functions. They have been operating without proper supervision and accountability in countries with ongoing conflicts, such as Afghanistan, Colombia and Iraq. They recruit former policemen and soldiers from developing countries as lsquo;security guards', but in fact they are lsquo;militarily armed private soldiers', or mercenaries. Employees of PMSCs have committed serious human rights violations, but have also been subject to abuse by their employers. Member states of the United Nations should identify those military and security functions that cannot be privatised, contracted out or lsquo;outsourced' and should remain a prerogative of the state. New international regulations, most likely in the form of a new UN Convention with an accompanying Model Law, are needed in order to bring PMSCs fully out of the legal lsquo;grey zone' in which they have been operating.

The Legal Regime Applicable to Private Military and Security Company Personnel in Armed Conflicts

The Legal Regime Applicable to Private Military and Security Company Personnel in Armed Conflicts
Author: Mohamad Ghazi Janaby
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2016-08-31
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3319422316

This book investigates the modern privatisation of war. It specifically focuses on the legal regime regulating private military and security company (PMSC) personnel in armed conflicts. The law regulating PMSC personnel is analysed from two perspectives. Firstly, can one of the three following legal statuses established by international humanitarian law – “mercenary”, “combatant” or “civilian” – be applied to PMSC personnel? Secondly, the book employs a context-dependent methodology to explore the legal regime regulating PMSC personnel. It argues that the legal regime regulating PMSC personnel in armed conflicts depends on who hires them: individual states, the United Nations, non-governmental organisations, or armed groups. This approach represents a departure from previous literature, where attention has primarily been paid to the use of PMSCs by states.

Private Military and Security Companies

Private Military and Security Companies
Author: Andrew Alexandra
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2009-10-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134081863

Over the past twenty years, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have become significant elements of national security arrangements, assuming many of the functions that have traditionally been undertaken by state armies. Given the centrality of control over the use of coercive force to the functioning and identity of the modern state, and to international order, these developments clearly are of great practical and conceptual interest. This edited volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of PMSCs: what they are, why they have emerged in their current form, how they operate, their current and likely future military, political, social and economic impact, and the moral and legal constraints that do and should apply to their operation. The book focuses firstly upon normative issues raised by the development of PMSCs, and then upon state regulation and policy towards PMSCs, examining finally the impact of PMSCs on civil-military relations. It takes an innovative approach, bringing theory and empirical research into mutually illuminating contact. Includes contributions from experts in IR, political theory, international and corporate law, and economics, and also breaks important new ground by including philosophical discussions of PMSCs.

The Morality of Private War

The Morality of Private War
Author: James Pattison
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2014
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199639701

The private military industry has been growing rapidly since the end of the Cold War. The Morality of Private War uses normative political theory to assess the leading moral arguments for and against the use of private military and security companies.

Private Security, Public Order

Private Security, Public Order
Author: Simon Chesterman
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2009-11-05
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0191610275

Private actors are increasingly taking on roles traditionally arrogated to the state. Both in the industrialized North and the developing South, functions essential to external and internal security and to the satisfaction of basic human needs are routinely contracted out to non-state agents. In the area of privatization of security functions, attention by academics and policy makers tends to focus on the activities of private military and security companies, especially in the context of armed conflicts, and their impact on human rights and post-conflict stability and reconstruction. The first edited volume emerging from New York University School of Law's Institute for International Justice project on private military and security companies, From Mercenaries to Market: The Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies broadened this debate to situate the private military phenomenon in the context of moves towards the regulation of activities through market and non-market mechanisms. Where that first volume looked at the emerging market for use of force, this second volume looks at the transformations in the nature of state authority. Drawing on insights from work on privatization, regulation, and accountability in the emerging field of global administrative law, the book examines private military and security companies through the wider lens of private actors performing public functions. In the past two decades, the responsibilities delegated to such actors - especially but not only in the United States - have grown exponentially. The central question of this volume is whether there should be any limits on government capacity to outsource traditionally "public" functions. Can and should a government put out to private tender the fulfilment of military, intelligence, and prison services? Can and should it transfer control of utilities essential to life, such as the supply of water? This discussion incorporates numerous perspectives on regulatory and governance issues in the private provision of public functions, but focuses primarily on private actors offering services that impact the fundamental rights of the affected population.

Privatizing War

Privatizing War
Author: Lindsey Cameron
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 757
Release: 2013-03-07
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1107328683

A growing number of states use private military and security companies (PMSCs) for a variety of tasks, which were traditionally fulfilled by soldiers. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the law that applies to PMSCs active in situations of armed conflict, focusing on international humanitarian law. It examines the limits in international law on how states may use private actors, taking the debate beyond the question of whether PMSCs are mercenaries. The authors delve into issues such as how PMSCs are bound by humanitarian law, whether their staff are civilians or combatants, and how the use of force in self-defence relates to direct participation in hostilities, a key issue for an industry that operates by exploiting the right to use force in self-defence. Throughout, the authors identify how existing legal obligations, including under state and individual criminal responsibility should play a role in the regulation of the industry.