A/HRC/7/7 page 8 − Workshop on “The Human Rights Special Procedures: The Institution of the Special Rapporteur”, organized by the United Nations University and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, in Lund, Sweden, from 2 to 4 May 2007.8 − Meeting on “Dialogue on private military and security companies and human rights”, organized by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre in London on 8 May 2007.9 22. The Chairperson-Rapporteur chaired and made a presentation to the seminar “Privatization of Security and Warfare and impacts on human rights”, hosted by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 21 March 2007. He also participated in the round table on “The United Nations confronts the new forms of mercenarism”, held at the Law Faculty of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid on 24 May 2007. He made a presentation to the Seminar on Poverty, Inequality and Torture: Addressing the Economic, Social and Cultural Root Causes of Violence through the UN Procedures, organized by the World Organization against Torture in Geneva from 18 to 22 June 2007. Furthermore, he made a presentation on “Privatizing the Use of Force: Accountability Issues and Implications for Local Communities” in a working session of a seminar on “Transforming Societies Emerging from Conflicts: An Agenda for Equality and Social Justice”, organized by the University of Deustuo in Bilbao, Spain, on 28 and 29 June 2007. He also made a presentation at the meeting on the Global Campaign for a Declaration on the Human Right to Peace, co-hosted by UNESCO and the Spanish Society for the Advancement of International Human Rights Law on 12 September 2007 at the United Nations Office in Geneva. III. THEMATIC ISSUES: THE STATE AS PRINCIPAL HOLDER OF THE USE OF FORCE A. Privatization of warfare and security 23. The Working Group observes that in the last 20 years there has been, primarily in Western European and North American countries and particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, a significant increase in private military and security companies which provide its services in zones of low-intensity armed conflict and post-conflict situation such as Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq, Colombia, Somalia and the Sudan. Parallel to this privatization of warfare at the international level, there has also been increased demand for private security and protection of property at the domestic level all over the world.10 8 The workshop produced the Lund Statement, which was issued as Human Rights Council document A/HRC/5/18. 9 For a summary note of this dialogue see http://www.business-humanrights.org/ Links/Repository/978963/jump. 10 H. Wulf, “Reconstructing the Public Monopoly of Legitimate Force”, in Private Actors and Security Governance, A. Bryden, M. Caparini (eds.), DCAF, 2006.