The Legal Status of Private Military and Security Company Personnel Participating in UN Peacekeeping Operations

Abstract

The United Nations has hired private military/security companies (PMSCs) to provide security services since at least the Somalian Civil War, when it deployed 7,000 Ghurka guards from Defense Systems Limited to protect relief convoys. According to a Global Policy Forum report, U.N. spending on outsourcing security services rose from $44 million in 2009 to $76 million in 2010. PMSCs may be used in peacekeeping operations in a variety of roles, including “police and military training and capacity building, security training and consultancy, [and] strategic information gathering.” In 2012, the U.N. Department of Safety and Security issued a set of formal guidelines through which PMSCs may be hired to provide security services to the U.N. Nonetheless, the U.N. Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries, originally formed in 2005 to study “the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination,” warned that “there is a risk that, without proper standards and oversight, the outsourcing of security functions by the United Nations to private companies could have a negative effect on the image and effectiveness of the United Nations in the field.”