A/HRC/27/50 I. Introduction 1. In the present report, 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 selfdetermination describes its activities since its previous report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/24/45). The thematic section of the report presents the results of the Working Group’s global study on national legislation concerning private military and security companies, which focuses on selected countries in Africa and Asia. 2. The report is submitted pursuant to resolution 2005/2 of the former Commission on Human Rights, which established the mandate of the Working Group, and Human Rights Council resolutions 7/21, 15/12 and 24/13, in which the Council further extended the mandate. 3. The Working Group is composed of five independent experts: Patricia Arias (Chile), Elzbieta Karska (Poland), Anton Katz (South Africa), Faiza Patel (Pakistan) and Gabor Rona (United States of America). Ms. Patel’s term officially ended on 2 June 2014. Mr. Saeed Mokbil (Yemen) was appointed on the same day as member of the Working Group. During its 20th regular session in December 2013, the Working Group elected Ms. Arias as Chairperson-Rapporteur for the period from January to December 2014. II. Activities of the Working Group 4. In accordance with its usual practice, the Working Group held three regular sessions during the reporting period: two in Geneva and one in New York. It held regular meetings with representatives of Member States, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and experts. It reviewed allegations regarding the activities of mercenaries and private military and/or security companies (PMSCs) and their impact on human rights, and decided on the appropriate action to be taken. 5. For the purposes of the present report, PMSC is defined as “a corporate entity which provides on a compensatory basis military and/or security services by physical persons and/or legal entities”. Military services refer to “specialized services related to military actions, including strategic planning, intelligence, investigation, land, sea or air reconnaissance, flight operations of any type, manned or unmanned, satellite surveillance, any kind of knowledge transfer with military applications, material and technical support to armed forces and other related activities”, whereas security services refer to “armed guarding or protection of buildings, installations, property and people, any kind of knowledge transfer with security and policing applications, development and implementation of informational security measures and other related activities”.1 A. Nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first sessions of the Working Group 6. The Working Group held its nineteenth session in New York from 29 July to 2 August 2013. As part of that session, it convened a panel discussion with experts to discuss the use of PMSCs by the United Nations, in the context of its study launched in March 2013, the outcome of which will form the basis of the Working Group’s report to the sixtyninth session of the General Assembly. The first panel focused on the use of PMSCs by the 1 Draft of a possible Convention on Private Military and Security Companies for consideration and action by the Human Rights Council, A/HRC/15/25, annex I. 3