War Criminals for Hire: The Role and Accountability of Mercenaries in Modern Armed Conflicts
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL 54TH REGULAR SESSION
Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) Side Event
War Criminals for Hire: The Role and Accountability of Mercenaries in Modern Armed Conflicts
20 September 2023
10-11 am
Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
Room: XXV
Agenda
Opening Remarks:
Mr. Chris Kwaja, Member of the UN Working Group on the use of Mercenaries
Moderator:
Antonia Mulvey, Executive Director, Legal Action Worldwide
Panelists:
- Mohammad Al Abdallah, Executive Director, Syria Justice and Accountability Centre
- Dmitry Gurin, Legal Advisor, European Prison Litigation Network
- Jelena Aparac, Head of Advocacy, Policy, and Research, Legal Action Worldwide, Former member and Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries
- Yousuf Syed Khan, Senior Lawyer, Global Rights Compliance
- Mikiko Otani, Member, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Closing Remarks:
Mr. Chris Kwaja, Member of the UN Working Group on the use of Mercenaries
About the event:
The proliferation of non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in international and non-international armed conflicts has been well documented and consistently highlighted by experts. NSAGs’ participation in hostilities has arguably contributed to their intensification and prolongation, and exacerbated the suffering caused to civilian populations. Increasingly, NSAGs comprise not only paramilitaries, militias, and terrorist groups, but private military and security companies, and mercenary forces, with the most notorious recent example being the Wagner Group. In places like Syria, Central African Republic, Mali, and Ukraine, mercenaries and private military groups have been associated with some of the most savage fighting and horrific human rights abuses. Warring parties in Sudan, Mali, and Central African Republic have cut deals with mercenary forces to gain military advantage over their rivals, leading to intense bloodshed as their new allies have gone on to commit atrocities including mass executions and enforced disappearances. In Syria, there are reports that foreign mercenary forces are plundering the country’s oil and gas resources, while in the Northeast an auxiliary army of former opposition groups has been co-opted to effect demographic change with the promise of confiscated land and property. In Ukraine, mercenaries have played a major role in fighting a war of aggression. Despite private military and mercenary forces being implicated in serious crimes on and off the battlefield, they have been able to operate with an alarming degree of impunity, often with formal backing from state actors.
Find the summary of the event here.