Summary 

In the present report, the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to selfdetermination examines the trends and increasing challenges presented by the financing of mercenaries and mercenary-related actors. While financial elements are included in the various international and regional legal definitions of mercenarism and the criminalization of the financing of mercenarism, the actual financing of mercenaries and related actors is largely underexamined. In the present report, and for the first time, the Working Group scrutinizes the methods and routes used by multiple primary and secondary actors to fund mercenarism around the world, at both the macro and micro levels, including traditional and alternative banking systems. It further explores the links between mercenarism and the exploitation of natural resources, and the connections to transnational organized crime and other illicit activities. In shining a spotlight on the financing of mercenarism, the Working Group presents an overview of the financial environment in which mercenarism thrives, and highlights the important connections between the involvement of mercenaries and related actors in armed conflicts, the resulting prolongation of armed conflicts and the consequent violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The Working Group concludes that better regulation of the routes used to finance mercenarism is crucial. 

During the preparation of the present report, the Working Group was composed of Carlos Salazar Couto (Chair), Ravindran Daniel, Sorcha MacLeod, Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito and Michelle Small. Chris Kwaja was a member until April 2024. Sorcha MacLeod was a member until July 2024. Joana de Deus Pereira joined on 1 August 2024. The Working Group thanks those individuals and organizations who contributed to and assisted with the writing of the present report, which was drafted primarily by Sorcha MacLeod and Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito.