Report of the UN Working Group on mercenaries, 'Trends and challenges in the financing of mercenaries and related actors' A/79/305

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 examines the trends and increasing challenges presented by the financing of mercenaries and mercenary-related actors. While financial elements are included in the various international and regional legal definitions of mercenarism and the criminalization of the financing of mercenarism, the actual financing of mercenaries and related actors is largely underexamined. In the present report, and for the first time, the Working Group scrutinizes the methods and routes used by multiple primary and secondary actors to fund mercenarism around the world, at both the macro and micro levels, including traditional and alternative banking systems. It further explores the links between mercenarism and the exploitation of natural resources, and the connections to transnational organized crime and other illicit activities. In shining a spotlight on the financing of mercenarism, the Working Group presents an overview of the financial environment in which mercenarism thrives, and highlights the important connections between the involvement of mercenaries and related actors in armed conflicts, the resulting prolongation of armed conflicts and the consequent violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The Working Group concludes that better regulation of the routes used to finance mercenarism is crucial.