A/HRC/21/43 A. Intergovernmental working group on regulating private military and security companies 18. The Human Rights Council, in its resolution 15/26, established an open-ended intergovernmental working group with the mandate to consider the possibility of elaborating an international regulatory framework, including the option of elaborating a legally binding instrument on the regulation, monitoring and oversight of the activities of private military and security companies, including their accountability, taking into consideration the principles, main elements and draft text as proposed by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries. The members of the Working Group look forward to participating as resource persons in the second session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group, to be held from 13 to 17 August 2012 in Geneva. B. Draft Charter of the Oversight Mechanism for the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers 19. On 16 January 2012, the Temporary Steering Committee of the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers, a multi-stakeholder initiative supported by the Government of Switzerland, issued the draft Charter of the Oversight Mechanism for the Code for public consultation. By a letter dated 30 March 2012, the Working Group expressed its continued support for the process of developing the Code and the Charter as a means of improving the adherence of private military and security companies to international humanitarian and human rights standards. The Working Group recognized the challenges of developing the Charter and submitted extensive comments in an effort to improve the draft text so that it would better fulfil the promise of the Code to protect human rights in the context of activities of private military and security companies. 20. As the implementing mechanism of the Code, the Charter’s structure and procedures have a critical bearing on the realization of the Code’s principles, goals and rules. The Charter’s effectiveness is the litmus test for the legitimacy of the Code as a means of improving the adherence of private military and security companies to human rights standards. The Working Group believes that the draft Charter does not live up to the promise of the Code in several ways, some of which illustrate the inherent limitations of a voluntary approach to regulation and demonstrate the need for a binding international instrument. 21. Generally, the Working Group believes that the Charter should be modified to explicitly mainstream the protection of human rights, which is the expressed goal of the Code and the Charter. The Working Group recommends that the Charter be brought further into compliance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights developed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (see A/HRC/17/31, annex), which were unanimously endorsed by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 17/4. That framework is specifically embraced in the Code and the Working Group believes the Guiding Principles set out the basic parameters that an industry self-regulatory mechanism should meet. The Working Group is aware of criticism of the Guiding Principles, in particular by non-governmental organizations, but notes that such criticism does not 6