Topic: 2024-Private Military Contractors
Country: Canada
Delegate Name: Shep Bower
Private Military Contractors are defined as private companies that provide military services for financial gain. The United Nations (UN) has long struggled with the complexities of PMCs operating in global conflicts and peacekeeping missions. With the expansion of PMCs in the 1990s, the role of PMCs expanded to incorporate multiple services that the state militia typically carries out. The expansion of PMCs created multiple challenges for the UN, one being their legal obscurity, as PMCs lack transparency and liability procedures that are typical to state militias. The concern over PMCs led the UN to create The International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries, an international treaty ratified by 46 states. Also in 2005, the UN established a working group on the use of mercenaries, which monitors the actions of mercenaries and PMCs.
In the 1990s and early 2000s Canada’s reliance on PMCs expanded like most other nations in the post-Cold War era, hiring these companies to keep peace in past conflicts like Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, and Haiti. Recently, The Canadian Federal government has pledged over 1 million dollars to hire PMCs, but Canada only currently employs PMCs to provide special training for the Canadian Special Forces, technical support, construction, and security. Canada maintains peace in all of its current operations through the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). While Canada has not ratified The International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries, it has endorsed the Montreux Document, which outlines the legal obligations and best practices of PMCs. Canada also Supports other initiatives like The International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers (ICoCA) which provides a voluntary set of standards for Private security companies.
Canada believes that the UN should not ban PMCs but focus on limiting PMCs by creating transparency and accountability measures for PMCs to ensure that they do not violate human rights.
To limit PMCs, Canada proposes a unified solution. First, Canada calls for the UN to create stronger and more legally binding frameworks that obligate PMCs to adhere to international law surrounding the ethicality of these PMCs. Second, Canada calls for the inclusion of mandatory reporting of PMCs by each country to ensure the transparency of PMCs. Third, Canada calls for PMCs to be held accountable for Human Rights violations by either establishing a new international tribunal or strengthening the jurisdiction of current international courts. Finally, Canada calls for PMCs to be primarily used for humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, and reconstruction efforts.
