ABSTRACT
This chapter refers to the extension of international human rights law to private military and security companies, or private military and security companies (PMSCs). It explains PMSCs are not directly bound by international human rights law. The chapter situates its account of the extension of human rights law to private security companies within its historical and legal context in an effort to understand why the existing legal framework pertaining to mercenaries. It provides a discussion on the emergence of modern private military and security companies in the 1990s, as reflected in the early observations and calls to action of the SR and the UN Commission on Human Rights. The chapter concludes with international human rights law to PMSCs, including the Draft business prepared by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries and the deliberations of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on PMSCs established by the UN Human Rights Council.
