A/HRC/10/14 page 2 Summary The Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination was established in July 2005 pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/2. The Working Group is composed of Ms. Najat Al-Hajjaji (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya), Ms. Amada Benavides de Peréz (Colombia), Mr. José Luis Gómez del Prado (Spain), Mr. Alexander Nikitin (Russian Federation) and Ms. Shaista Shameem (Fiji). Mr. Alexander Nikitin was elected as Chairperson-Rapporteur on 7 April 2008. The present report is presented in accordance with the terms of the resolution requesting that the Working Group report annually on the progress made in the fulfilment of its mandate to the Human Rights Council. Section I introduces the report and section II presents an overview of activities undertaken during the reporting period. Section III describes envisioned future activities, notably a process of regional consultations with States, to discuss the fundamental question of the role of the State as a holder of the monopoly of the use of force. The Working Group devotes a thematic section of the report to standards, principles and guidelines for a new international convention on regulating private military and security companies and other legal regulatory instruments. Section IV contains the Working Group’s conclusions and section V its recommendations. In particular, the Working Group recommends the elaboration and adoption of a new international convention on the regulation of private military and security companies, including an accompanying model law to assist Governments in the adoption of appropriate national legislation. The Working Group also proposes basic principles for the regulation of private military and security companies and recommends, when this set of principles are converted by it into draft legal instruments, the establishment in due time of an intersessional intergovernmental open-ended working group for the preparation of such a convention. Finally, section VI addresses the status of the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries.