EXPERTS TO MEET IN GENEVA TO STUDY PREVENTION OF MERCENARY ACTIVITY

10 May 2002



International experts from academia and the human rights community will meet in Geneva from 13 to 17 May to study ways of making the prevention and punishment of the activities of mercenaries more efficient.

The gathering, organized by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, will focus on elaborating a clearer legal definition of mercenaries. Coming in the wake of international reaction to the 11 September attacks, the meeting may also look at the possible link between mercenaries and terrorists. The regulation of private security firms will also be addressed.

A total of ten experts have been invited to participate, among them leading academics and human rights experts, both from government and civil society. The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the question of mercenaries, Enrique Bernales Ballesteros, will also attend. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been invited to participate as observer.

A first meeting, which took place from 29 January to 2 February 2001, surveyed the phenomenon of mercenary activity in several regions of the world. The results of those discussions can be found in UN Document E/CN.4/2001/18. In October last year a United Nations convention on mercenaries came into force, 12 years after its adoption.

The meeting is being convened in accordance with General Assembly resolution 56/232 of 7 December 2001. It will open at 10 a.m. in room XXVII of the Palais des Nations in Geneva.



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