Executive summary

The report begins with a description of the Special Rapporteur’s activities during the year 2000 and the correspondence sent and received. Reference is made to the communications received from the Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Georgia, Madagascar, Pakistan and Venezuela in response to the Special Rapporteur’s general request for information and cooperation on the part of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In following up his official mission to Cuba in September 1999, the Special Rapporteur discusses the communications sent to the Governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and the United States of America as well as the replies received.

The report describes the development of mercenary activities in Africa from the time that mercenaries were used by the racist apartheid regime in South Africa up to and including recent armed conflicts in the continent and refers to the situation in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea‑Bissau, the Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.

The Special Rapporteur then examines the differences between traditional and new forms of mercenary activities, the relationship between terrorism and mercenary activities, the problems raised in connection with respect for human rights and international humanitarian law by private security and military assistance companies operating internationally and the limits and shortcomings of the legal definition of mercenary activities. He also discusses the present position as regards accessions to and ratifications of the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, adopted by the General Assembly in 1989.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-11