A/HRC/7/7 page 10 transnational corporations operate.17 An emerging trend in Latin America but also in other regions of the world indicates situations of private security companies protecting transnational extractive corporations whose employees are often involved in suppressing the legitimate social protest of communities and human rights and environmental organizations of the areas where these corporations operate. Furthermore, in exchange for providing security services to some African Governments, PMSCs have in some cases received concessions for the exploitation of natural resources.18 27. PMSCs are at present rarely held accountable by effective oversight mechanisms at parliamentary levels, whether in the States that contracts them or in the countries where they operate. It also appears that PMSCs determine and influence the demand for security services. As regards their involvement in institution-building in post-conflict situations their services raise questions regarding sustainability and their actual contribution in ending low-intensity conflicts. Outsourcing military and security functions has an inherent danger in ensuring State control over the use of force.19 28. The distinction between humanitarian non-profitable organizations and corporations working for pecuniary gain20 is also being blurred by PMSCs. In conflict or post-conflict areas, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where PMSCs sometimes provide security details and protection work to humanitarian NGOs, it has become difficult for the population as well as government officials to distinguish one from another. Humanitarian and aid-type assistance risk becoming associated with an intervening force and PMSCs which may be perceived as biased. PMSCs do not hesitate to utilize the aims of humanitarian non-profit organizations to advertise their activities. One of such companies recurrently puts an ad in the Journal of International Peace Operations (IPOA)21 in relation with its activities in Afghanistan, Somalia, Congo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sudan and Iraq displaying a picture of an individual feeding a malnourished baby with the following message “Through selfless commitment and compassion for all people, 17 In the privatization of warfare and the utilization of private security companies to protect multinational extractive corporations one can find elements of bygone historical periods, the use of force by non-State actors. J.E. Thompson, Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns: State-building and Extraterritorial Violence in Early Modern Europe, Princeton University Press, 1994. In such situations, multinational corporations contract private security companies whose employees are often found involved in social conflicts with the local populations. 18 E/CN.4/2000/NGO/148. 19 H. Wulf, supra. 20 G. Carbonnier, ibid. 21 Publication of the International Peace Operations Association and the Peace Operations Institute, vol. 2, No. 4, January/February 2007, Washington.