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Foreign Incursions And Recruitment

1.0 Table of Contents

1.0 Table of Contents

2.0 Introduction

3.0 Origin of Issue

4.0 Law

4.1               Law (Foreign Legislations)

4.2               Law (United Nations Legislation)

5.0 Evaluation

6.0 Bibliography


2.0 Introduction

Private Military Contractors, or with bitter colloquialism, mercenaries or ‘guns for hire’, provide specialised expertise or services of a military nature. PMC’s often train or supplement official armed forces in service of governments but are also employed by private firms. They are commonly deployed in areas where official armed forces are considered too politically, diplomatically or economically insecure.
With a tenfold increase of Contractors used in military operations in the past decade; the Private Military Corporation is currently worth over US $100 billion per annum   globally.
With a tenfold increase of Contractors used in military operations in the past decade; the legal implications of the use of PMC’s is rapidly becoming an internationally significant issue.
Legislation including Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977; International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries 2001; South Africa’s Foreign Military Assistance Act 1998; the United States of America’s Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893 and specifically Australia’s Crimes (Foreign Incursions and Recruitment) Act 1978 introduced to manage the revolutionary Private Military industry are analysed to indicate the ineffective legislation regulating PMC’s.
Case law and incidents show that the acts committed by PMC’s are unpalatable, often illegal and morally disputed, yet they continue to have dominance in the military privatisation race, and a seemingly ‘above the law’ status.
In acknowledgement of statistics and a varying degree of questionably ethical and legal...