RESpECT - Public Actions, Private Rules at the Margins: Ensuring Respect for Human Rights by Private Security Companies

Project Information

RESpECT

Grant agreement ID: 844999

DOI

10.3030/844999

Project closed

EC signature date 2 April 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 30 September 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 328 968,00

EU contribution

€ 328 968,00

Coordinated by

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RESpECT (RESpECT - Public Actions, Private Rules at the Margins: Ensuring Respect for Human Rights by Private Security Companies)

Reporting period: 2019-10-01 to 2022-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The overall objective of RESpECT was to assess the effectiveness of current international and national regulatory and policy frameworks that deal with human rights violations by Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC) against marginalised groups, including women, children, migrants, racialised persons, persons with disabilities, and LGBTI+ persons. The aim was to produce insights to help policy makers, governments, regulators, the private security industry and its auditors, and civil society actors to understand and improve public and private regulatory frameworks for international PMSC with the aim of securing tangible benefits for those vulnerable and marginalised groups worst affected.

PMSC have a bad reputation when it comes to respecting human rights. Efforts to develop a soft multistakeholder regulatory framework emerged in 2008 and resulted in the Montreux Document, and in 2010 the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Providers (ICoC). Since then, the market for PMSC has changed and developed significantly. These two factors, an implemented, regulatory framework for PMSC combined with a changing market, made an examination of the regulatory effectiveness in ensuring that PMSC respect and comply with international human rights standards very timely and required.

RESpECT engaged normative, empirical, and analytical techniques:

(1) To critically assess the human rights elements of the International Code of Conduct (ICoC) and its multistakeholder oversight body, the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA), which has developed monitoring, certification, and complaints mechanisms.
(2) To critically analyse selected national legislative and policy initiatives designed to address PMSC-related human rights violations with critical attention being paid to the adoption of and the interrelation between public and private regulatory techniques and remedies, especially legal liabilities and enforcement mechanisms.
(3) To determine how, in particular, marginalised groups are impacted by PMSC-related human rights violations and to assess the effectiveness of selected international/national and public/private regulatory frameworks.

While some progress has been made in the regulation of PMSC, the research undertaken during the RESpECT project identified substantial gaps in the effectiveness of legal and policy frameworks, especially with regard to persons in vulnerable situations including women, migrants, racialised persons, persons with disabilities, and LGBTI+ persons. It further identified gaps in labour standards for private security personnel. RESpECT also determined that the Covid19 pandemic exacerbated and amplified existing human rights concerns around PMSC that the regulatory frameworks have been unable to address effectively.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

RESpECT has generated six peer-reviewed publications so far in international journals. A further two Working papers, three contributions to conference/workshop proceedings, and a policy brief have been published. As a member of the UN Working Group on mercenaries, the research undertaken during RESpECT has also been cited in and underpinned my contributions to six thematic reports to the UN Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly and will continue to do so for the duration of my mandate.

Since the end of the project, three book chapters have been published, and another two journal articles, a policy brief, and a monograph stemming from RESpECT will be published. More publications will derive from additional RESpECT funded fieldwork undertaken after the end of project due to Covid19 pandemic delays.

During the project, the researcher participated in 37 conferences, workshops, and seminars, 4 Faculty seminars, and delivered 9 guest lectures at universities around the world. Furthermore, the researcher disseminated the results of RESpECT by publishing 2 blogs and 2 videos, and via participation in 4 podcasts. Finally, the researcher engaged heavily with global media during the course of the project and was interviewed 34 times for television, radio, and print media, as well as contributing to 4 international television documentaries.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

By applying a novel intersectional human rights approach, RESpECT has uncovered gaps in the regulation of private military and security companies (PMSC), particularly in relation to gender, race, socio-economic status, and other situations of vulnerability. The Covid19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated these regulatory gaps in ways that were unanticipated, for example around poor labour standards, and I was able to respond to them rapidly within the project and lead the research agenda in the most relevant way.

RESpECT speaks to and has had tangible impacts on the field of PMSC regulation. The outputs from RESpECT have contributed to high-level regulatory debates and developments including those at the UN Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on PMSC, where some of my recommendations were included in a draft instrument. My research has also contributed to the work of multistakeholder regulatory bodies such as the International Code of Conduct Association. As an invited human rights technical expert, I worked on the update of the US ASIS/ANSI PSC.1 management standards for private security companies.

In terms of career impact, RESpECT has enabled me to increase my publication record and to develop my international profile and networks. I was retained as an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law after the end of the project and have successfully obtained further international research funding and reached Step 2 of the ERC Consolidator Grant process.

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