A/HRC/22/41 as a potential good practice and indicated that examples of other national legislation and practice can be accessed on the Private Security Monitor web portal. 33. On the issue of whether existing initiatives addressed accountability gaps arising where PMSCs personnel may be granted immunity from the jurisdiction of the territorial State, Mr. Melzer noted that under the Montreux Document, all States, including the contracting State and the home State, would still be obliged to hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable. 2. Perspective of the PMSC industry 34. In his presentation on the perspective of the private security company industry, Chris Sanderson noted that such companies provided armed and unarmed protective security services to a range of Government, international and non-governmental organizations and commercial clients in a spectrum of environments where politically, ideologically or criminally motivated threats are such that specialist protection was required. He emphasized that private security companies must be distinguished from private military companies that were involved in military operations, e.g. in interrogations of enemy combatants, and training and provision of specific military skills. 35. Mr. Sanderson highlighted that private security companies tended to adopt recognized best practice, but there were still variations in the quality of service and operational records of individual companies. The majority of companies operating internationally and with a significant interest and involvement in regulation were based mainly in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, where government and relevant industry associations were closely cooperating to raise industry standards and establish uniform national standards. He also noted that there are many companies delivering armed and unarmed security services in States where international regulatory initiatives and the development of best practice had much less traction. 36. Mr. Sanderson noted that in his view the majority of the private security industry welcomes effective regulation and the raising of standards and is keen to see improvement in the mechanisms for proper accountability. He also noted that Governments and international organizations constituted, alongside the extractive industry and the shipping industry, a significant client group for security services. Their procurement decisions could therefore be very influential in the industry’s recognition and adoption of best practices. 37. Mr. Sanderson specified that regulatory frameworks, be they national or international, should meet four key criteria: (a) effectiveness, in that they must have a genuine, significant and positive impact on performance, rather than just offering process without substantive change and, to that end, must be based on third party rather than selfregulation; (b) inclusiveness, in that they must impact on the performance of all companies, and not just those companies who are already achieving appropriate standards, although perhaps not in a fully measurable and independently verifiable manner; (c) transparency through robust, independent processes which addresses broader concerns about the integrity of voluntary or self-regulatory systems; and (d) affordability, in that regulation must be proportionate to operational need, and companies should only have to demonstrate conformity with one accepted and recognized standard. He noted that, in his view, regulatory standards should cover elements of leadership, management and governance; operational processes; selection, screening and vetting of staff and sub-contractor organizations; collective and individual training, and maintenance of training records; procurement, licensing and management of firearms; rules for use of force; compliance with international and national law, including human rights obligations, and the specific regulatory requirements of the jurisdictions in which companies operate; reporting and documenting of incidents and grievance processes. He highlighted that many companies had already invested heavily in these areas, but formal measurable standards and 9

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents