FIDH oral statement on Panel VII: Corporate Liability
I take the floor to briefly address a specific issue raised by States, namely regulation of private security and military contractors and access to remedy for victims of human rights violations by this sector of corporate actors...We urge this Intergovernmental Working Group to clarify, and indeed, affirm the liability of companies, including PMSCs, for their participation in human rights violations. That the corporations are hired by States – or the United Nations – must not serve as a shield to liability. Any immunities States - or the UN - might enjoy must not be imputed to these for- profit actors and must not be permitted to serve as a barrier to victims of human rights violations right to a remedy, particularly in circumstances where the violations in question have been affirmed in treaty and customary law as unlawful, and thus cannot be considered as official State acts...