A/HRC/30/34 guards, the regulations provide that they must inform the authority of any criminal acts and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that they learn about during the course of their work. For community services, an oversight council is created, which submits quarterly reports to the Office with recommendations to ensure public security, opens activities to public scrutiny and provides effective monitoring. 98 This is a good practice. 120. In Brazil, activities are supervised by a department of the federal police. The regulation requires private security companies to communicate immediately to the specialized private security delegations or the inspection commissions in their area about illegal activities in which their guards are involved. 99 121. In Buenos Aires, the supervisory authority audits and applies sanctions, and must make at least one annual inspection. In Ecuador, the law provides for monitoring and regulation of private security companies by the Ministry of Government and Police together with the Office of Business Oversight, and inspections may take place at any time and under any circumstances, with the Ministry applying sanctions for infractions committed. In the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the national authority responsible for private companies supervises and monitors the operations of such companies and ensures compliance with regulations, efficient and transparent operations, periodically inspects the companies and issues warnings.100 Regulations establish the responsibility for management of the companies and their personnel, for any negligent activities or for the commission of crimes during their work. 122. In Peru, the Office for the Control of Security Services, Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives for Civilian Use supervises private security activities and prosecutes those that violate the human rights enshrined in the constitution. 101 In Uruguay, the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for regulating and inspecting private security companies, and proposes sanctions in the event of infractions. In Chile, it is the prefecture of carabineros that supervises, inspects and regulates companies with armed and unarmed guards. Ratification of conventions on mercenaries 123. Only two countries have ratified the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries: Uruguay (1999) and Peru (2007). There are no regional regulations governing the activities of mercenaries. The concept of mercenary activities is mentioned only in the legislation of Peru on private security services. IV. Conclusions and recommendations 124. The research revealed that while all analysed countries have legislation regulating private security companies, each country approaches the privatization of the security industry differently, which results in patchy and inconsistent regulation. The Working Group stresses that the different approaches and regulatory gaps demonstrated in the study may result in a serious undermining of the rule of law and the accountability of private military and security company personnel for violations of the law. Furthermore, regulatory gaps create potential risks to various fundamental 98 99 100 101 Act No. 2974/1997, art. 13. Ordinance No. 3233/1012, art. 165. Act No. 222544, art. 7. Act No. 003/2011, arts. 55, 59 and 60 (j). 21