Private Security Contractors and the UN

On 19th May 2010, GPF hosted a lunchtime discussion on Private Security Contractors and their involvement with the United Nations. The discussion hosted three distinguished speakers: James Cockayne (Senior Fellow and Director of New York Office, Center on Global Counter Terrorism Cooperation), Scott Horton (New York Attorney and Expert in Military and International Law), and Jeremy Scahill (Investigative journalist and Puffin Writing Fellow of the Nation Institute).

In January 2010, the UN announced it would hire a British private security firm to protect its staff in Afghanistan. This contradicted past statements made by UN officials that condemned PSCs and argued against their use. As the UN's relationship with PSCs changes, some crucial questions need answering: how many private security contractors does the UN hire? What does the UN hire PSCs for? What means are being used to monitor them? And more generally, can the UN be used as a vehicle to make PSCs accountable for their actions?

The Draft International Convention on the Regulation, Oversight and Monitoring Of Private Military and Security Companies has been circulating since 2009, with a UN working group prepared to announce the results of its consultations in September 2010. But even if the UN is able to ratify a convention, does it have the capacity to enforce it?

You can listen to the event as a six-part podcast. Either go through our website or download them at iTunes by following these simple steps:

1. Open iTunes

2. Click Advanced

3. Click Subscribe to Podcast

4. Enter this into the box: http://feeds.feedburner.com/globalpolicyforum

5. Click OK

6. You can then select which parts you would like to download and listen to

Here are some photos from the event:

alice powell associate at gpf introduces the speakers