UN’s Unions Appalled at UN Use of Mercenaries
▻http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/258-regulation-and-oversight-of-pmscs/52485-un-unions-appalled-at-un-use-of-mercenaries-a-un-staff-coordinat
UN Unions are today calling on United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki‐moon to urgently review its use of mercenaries to carry out security and peacekeeping work ahead of the 2013 General Assembly. UN Unions believe this practice is damaging the UN and putting staff at increasing risk, and taking place against the worrying backdrop of an attack on staff employment rights by UN management.
A report published this week by the United Nations’ own Working Group on the use of mercenaries reveals that the UN is increasingly outsourcing contracts for armed guards, convoy security, security advice, risk assessment and transport services.
The Working Group’s report, supported by the Global Policy Forum’s report on the use of Private Military and Security Companies by the United Nations, highlights the lack of credible guidelines to regulate mercenaries and describes how the UN has no way of checking whether mercenaries have previously committed human rights abuses.
