Mercenaries, Private Military and Security Companies

Belhoul Nacim

Description

The use of mercenaries has been historically a constant phenomenon till almost the end of the XX century, when their activities were criminalized by the international community. Parallel to that phenomenon European States, during their colonial expansion over all continents, authorized two other forms of similar violence by non state actors: the corsairs and the colonial merchant companies, such as the East India Company or the Hudson.

Sujets

• MILITARY SCIENCE

Informations

• Publié par: Amwaj for Printing & Publishing & Distribution
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9796500332413
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Mercenaries, Private Military and Security Companies

Mercenaries, Private Military and Security Companies

Dr. Belhoul Nacim

C ontents

Introduction: ......................................................................................................... 9

Part 1: UNDERSTANDING THE TERMINOLOGY ..................................... 14 Part 2: EXPLAINING PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD ................................................................................. 36 The emergence of PMCs in the contemporary world: .......................................... 36 Why does international law come into play? ....................................................... 39 WHY DOES INTERNATIONAL NEED TO REGULATE PMCS IN THE FIRST PLACE? ............................................................................................................. 40

ARGUMENTS FOUNDED ON SOVEREIGNTY:............................................. 40 ARGUMENTS FOUNDED ON THE LACK OF LEGITIMATE CONTROL OVER PMCS: .................................................................................................... 42 DEFINING PMCS:............................................................................................. 43 COMPANIES PROVIDING PRIVATE COMBAT SUPPORT:.......................... 44 COMPANIES PROVIDING NON-COMBAT PERSONEL:............................... 45 HOW DIFFERENT ARE PMCS FROM MERCENARIES? ............................... 46 Part 3: Mercenary activities in international law ............................................ 51 The International Court of Justice: Nicaragua versus United States of America: .. 55 The Additional Protocols of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions: ............................ 56 OUA Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa of 1977 ............. 59 The International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries of 1989: ........................................................................ 61 National legislations: .......................................................................................... 67 Regulation: ......................................................................................................... 75 Bilateral agreements and other forms which guarantee immunity: ....................... 86  5

Private military and security companies: ............................................................. 91 Part 4: Activities of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries ........ 96 Concluding remarks:......................................................................................... 102 Part 5: The discourses on Private Military Companies:................................ 109 identity and mercenarism: ................................................................................. 109 Controlling PMC: the Green Paper Document:.................................................. 111 Controlling PMC: the Montreux Document:..................................................... 112 The Green Paper and the Montreaux Document: narratives about the legitimacy of PMSCs: ............................................................................................................ 113 Conclusion: ...................................................................................................... 116 Part 6: Private Military Contractors and Combatancy Status ..................... 119 Under International Humanitarian Law ............................................................. 119 PMCs: A Challenge to the Principle of Distinction:........................................... 121 The Legal Status of Private Military Contractors under the Laws of War:.......... 126 Rethinking Combatancy Status Under IHL: ...................................................... 128 The Principle of Distinction and the Theory of Innocence: ................................ 129

A Moral Assessment of Noncombatant Immunity: ............................................ 133 Conclusion: ...................................................................................................... 136 Part 7: Bridging Accountability Gaps – ......................................................... 139 The Proliferation of Private Military and Security Companies and Ensuring Accountability for Human Rights Violations ..................................................... 139 I – Current Reality: ........................................................................................... 140 II – A Patchwork of Laws and Loopholes: ........................................................ 143 III- A Step Forward – Montreux Document:..................................................... 145

IV- Ensuring PMSC Accountability – Signing the Convention Against Mercenaries, Building and Enforcing Strong Domestic Regulation and Adopting the TNC Norms: ............................................................................................... 148 V – Recommendations and Action Steps:.......................................................... 152  6

Part 8: PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES AND PEACE OPERATIONS IN AFRICA ..................................................................................................... 154 The Historical Background: .............................................................................. 154 The Logic of Privatisation:................................................................................ 156 Modern PMC:................................................................................................... 158

Experiences from Africa: .................................................................................. 160 The Problems with PMC:.................................................................................. 163 Alternatives to the Use of PMC:........................................................................ 164 Regulations in Force: ........................................................................................ 171

Improved Regulation?....................................................................................... 173 Which Prohibitions and Obligations? ................................................................ 173 Which Actors? .................................................................................................. 175 Which Instruments? .......................................................................................... 176

Conclusion and Perspectives: ............................................................................ 178

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I ntroduction

 The use of mercenaries has been historically a constant phenomenon till almost the end of the XX century, when their activities were criminalized by the international community. Parallel to that phenomenon European States, during their colonial expansion over all continents, authorized two other forms of similar violence by non state actors: the corsairs and the colonial merchant companies, such as the East India Company or the Hudson Bay Company.  At the threshold of the XXI century we are witnessing a similar phenomenon. Although mercenaries have not completely disappeared “private military and security companies” (PMSC), in the course of the past 20 years, have increasingly taken over the traditional activities carried out 1 by mercenaries before . Contrary to mercenaries, private military and security companies are transnational corporations legally registered which obtain contracts from governments, private firms, intergovernmental and 1 An emergent trend shows that there is osmosis between former mercenaries working for private military and security companies, and vice versa, employees or executives of private military and security companies operating individually as mercenaries. The most representative example of such osmosis is perhaps the failed coup d’état in Equatorial Guinea in 2004. Among the persons involved in the attempted coup d’état, which were arrested and detained in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, there were two executives of the former private military company Executive Outcomes, the British Simon Mann and the South African Nick du Toit, as well as the owners of Meteoric Tactical, a South African private security company operating in Iraq: Hermanus Carsle and Lourens Horn.  9