Topic: Status of Defense Contractors and Non-National Combatants
Country: Portugal
Delegate Name: Casey Fuller
School: Traverse City West High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Portugal position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
Overtime the complications on the status of defense contractors and non-national combatants has grown tremendously to a point where it is unclear what actions should be taken. The term illegal and legal combatant is interpreted differently from each member state which thus designates the UN to create a resolution defining the combatant in question. Therefore, all parties should acknowledge the set descriptions of what constitutes a legal combatant and an illegal enemy combatant. Also, member states must clarify the terms on which an illegal enemy combatant or a contractor must be detained by in order to eliminate confusion or hypocritical decisions.
Currently, the US relies upon their contractors to help resolve the war on terror. In spite of this, they still detain combatants from other nations considering them “illegal enemy combatants” although they are deploying some themselves. This calls for the UN to clarify a legal course of action that could be taken against the captured combatants when they are not given the prisoner of war status. Another issue at hand is how these captured combatants are treated in terms of punishment. Some accounts of torture have been committed which Portugal feels very strongly against.
Private organizations sent from the US such as Black water also stir up problems involving contractors and their influence on war. Although Portugal does see the usage of contractors to be beneficial, it is only for protective purposes. Some boundaries have been pushed to far in examples such as Blackwater employees in Nisour Square, Baghdad where they shot and killed 17 Iraqis in which 14 of them had no legitimate reason to be shot according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Portugal recognizes that most combatants and contractors do not obtain the formal status of a soldier in their state but feels the need to distinguish them between a freedom fighter and or a mercenary. Contractors should be given a certain visual of identification in order to ensure the prisoner of war status that the Geneva Convention of 1949 promised them. Ultimately this clear up the foggy perception of the combatant at hand.
Therefore, Portugal recommends that immediate actions need to be taken to resolve this issue in order to eliminate future occurrences of violations against the Geneva Conventions conclusions. Inevitably this will allow for proper treatment of combatants in war zones.
