The Privatization of Warfare, Violence and Private Military & Security Companies

2011. - Geneva. - 323p. This research, carried out by the Nova-Institute for Active Non-violence, together with Jordi Palou-Loverdos and Leticia Armendáriz, is an important contribution to the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries’ task. These kinds of partnerships are very important for the monitoring of the activities of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs). Some light needs to be shed on the activities performed by these PMSCs to end impunity and generate conditions of accountability for human rights’ abuses elsewhere, combining the strengths of the UN resources and the resources of the International community. It is worth mentioning the synergy between the international team members in relation to this very complex question, more specifically between the Iraqi researchers who gathered information in the field in Iraq, and the international researchers who collected and interpreted dates and information. This research is rigorous and well structured. The main subject is the violation of human rights by PMSCs in Iraq. Each fact is well documented with sources, and includes an analysis of the facts regarding national and international PMSC activities in Iraq. It also includes resource-extraction companies and construction companies which are related in some way to PMSCs and possibly related to human rights’ violations. The reader will find it very easy to access the sources; in fact each annex contains the link to the main original article or source. This document represents a great symbiotic integration of theory and practice and contains very detailed information on the normative elements, resolutions and the judicial decisions by courts of justice.