A forum for participants of the Montreux Document on pertinent international legal obligations and good practices for states related to operations of private military and security companies during armed conflict.
About the Document
The Montreux Document reaffirms the existing obligations of States under international law, in particular international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law, relating to the activities of private military and security companies (PMSCs).
Resulting from a joint initiative launched by Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Montreux Document was finalised in 2008. The Document seeks to provide guidance on the basis of existing international law, but is not a legally binding treaty. To become Montreux Document Participants, States and International Organisations merely need to communicate their support for the Montreux Document to the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (More here).
Why support the Montreux Document?
The Montreux Document provides a blueprint for governments to effectively regulate PMSCs. It highlights the responsibilities of three principal types of states: Contracting states (countries that hire PMSCs), Territorial states (countries on whose territory PMSCs operate), and Home states (countries in which PMSCs are headquartered or based). Furthermore, the good practices may be useful for other actors such as international organisations, civil society, companies that contract PSMCs, and PMSCs themselves. While Part one of the Document recalls the pertinent legal obligations of States regarding PMSCs, Part two contains a description of good practices which aim to provide guidance and assistance to States in regulating PMSCs. The good practices include determining which services may or may not be contracted out to PMSCs, requiring appropriate training, establishing terms for granting licenses, and adopting measures to improve supervision, transparency and accountability of PMSCs.
Although the Document was developed with the view that PMSCs operate in situations of armed conflict, it may also be instructive for post-conflict situations and for other, comparable situations. Furthermore, most of its good practices are ideally put in place during peacetime.
Template to express support for the Montreux Document (عَرَبِيّ, English, français, русский, español)
