Brennan Center for Justice

Faiza Patel, Co-Director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program, also serves on the United Nations Human Rights Council's Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries. She addressed the working group on September 12, 2012. A video and a summary of her remarks, also available on the Office of the High Commisioner of Human Rights website, follows:

Ms. Patel said that regulating private military and security companies required a multi-layered approach. That was why the Working Group was engaged in the development of international standards, understanding national regulations and working with the industry to provide feedback on self-regulatory efforts. She outlined four main elements that should be included in a treaty on private military and security companies. First, defining and deciding what kind of functions could and could not be outsourced to private military and security companies. Second, ensuring that these companies were registered and licensed, and third, ensuring accountability for human rights violations. The fourth and final element was the need for modest international supervision. Those were the building blocks of the proposed international legislation. On the national level, the Working Group had initiated research into national systems and was now focusing on two regions, Africa, without the Middle East and North Africa, and five Eastern European countries. The Working Group was focusing on these countries to start because of resource constraints. Concerning industry-level approaches to improving compliance of private military and security companies with human rights standards, Ms. Patel recalled that in its comments on the Draft Charter to implement the International Code of Conduct, the Working Group identified several areas of concern, including the need to mainstream human rights. With respect to the reference the delegation of the United States to ANSI Standard, Ms. Patel requested that the United States provide this standard – which was only available commercially – as part of its answer to the Working Group’s national legislation request.

For the whole presentation, please click here.