A/HRC/33/43 investigative activities”,33 respectively. In Kyrgyzstan and the Republic of Moldova, the legislation specifies that the regulatory bodies are entitled to perform “scheduled and unscheduled inspections” to determine compliance with licensing terms and other applicable regulation.34 40. All the analysed laws also contain criminal offences relating to mercenary activities. These are found in the Criminal Codes of Azerbaijan, 35 Kazakhstan,36 Kyrgyzstan,37 the Republic of Moldova,38 Tajikistan39and Uzbekistan40 (see Schedule 2). The sanctions mainly take the form of imprisonment (up to life imprisonment, or even a death sentence in extreme situations), but the laws vary in the types of “indirect” mercenary activities which they criminalize. Firstly, in all countries except Uzbekistan, the creation, financing or use of mercenary groups in armed conflicts entails imprisonment for between 4 and 12 years. Participation in mercenary activities carries a slightly lighter sentence of imprisonment for between 3 and 10 years, except in Tajikistan where participation in mercenary activities in an armed conflict carries the harsh sentence of 12 to 20 years’ imprisonment. In three of the six countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — the involvement in mercenary activities entailing the abuse of official powers the recruitment of young people constitute separate offences and carry a sentence of 7 to 15 years’ imprisonment in all three countries. 41. Finally, three countries — Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova and Uzbekistan — also criminalize mercenary activities corresponding to the harm they cause. The laws provide different prison terms depending on the degree of injury to the victims, that is the infliction of bodily harm, serious harm, or intentional killing “for mercenary motives. In Kazakhstan, some mercenary activities are capital crimes. 42. In addition to the criminal offences described above, the legislation in some countries also has administrative and international elements. In Kazakhstan, violation of the procedural requirements and restrictions on private security organizations constitutes an administrative offence.41 As for the international law elements, mercenary activity is regarded as a war crime in Azerbaijan and in Tajikistan, the intentional use of force aimed at non-combatants or that which results in murder, inhuman treatment or grave suffering in the course of an internal or international armed conflict is regarded as an intentional violation of international humanitarian law. Both are directly punishable under the Criminal Codes of these countries.42 43. While there is a designated body for regulating private security company activities in all the reviewed countries, the analysis reveals a lack of specific rules on the content of monitoring mechanisms, which might result in weak enforcement in practice. Most of the legislation contains similar provisions in relation to the type and nature of the criminal offences related to mercenary activity. Given the transnational nature of private military and security company activities, the Working Group is of the view that the further standardization of accountability mechanisms is desirable, so as to ensure accountability of private military and security companies regardless of the location of their operations. The general lack of legal and practical remedies for victims should also be addressed. 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 10 Law No. 45 of 12 April 1994. Kyrgyzstan: articles 3 and 6 of Law No. 35; Republic of Moldova: article 31 of Law No. 283-XV. Article 114 of the Criminal Code. Articles 170 and 267 of the Criminal Code. Articles 229 and 375 of the Criminal Code. Articles 141, 151 and 152 of the Criminal Code. Articles 185, 195, 196 and 401 of the Criminal Code. Articles 97, 104, 105 (chapter 1 of section one) and 154 of the Criminal Code. Article 470 of the Administrative Offences Code of Kazakhstan; Law No. 85-II. Article 114 of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan; article 403 of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan.