[Lisa Davis is the senior associate dean of Clinical Programs & professor of law at CUNY Law School, and the ICC special adviser on Gender and Other Discriminatory Crimes. Kirby Anwar is a senior legal fellow at Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, CUNY School of Law, senior legal advisor at MADRE and member of the Gender Persecution in Afghanistan Accountability Working...
[Dr Sarah Katharina Stein, LL.M. (Columbia) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg, Germany. She holds a PhD focussing on public international law and PMSCs from Ludwigs-Maximilans-University Munich.] Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have been part of the global security architecture for some while now, however, they still outpace the...
[Ara Marcén Naval is a Spanish human rights advocate and policy expert with over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of conflict, human rights, corruption, and accountability. She has advised governments, UN agencies, and civil society organisations, and recently contributed to international efforts to regulate private military and security companies.] In today’s wars, power wears a suit and profit pulls...
[Adrián Agenjo is a Clerk at the Constitutional Court of Spain] The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone and do not represent any institutional affiliation. The increasing presence of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) in modern conflict- zones has prompted critical questions regarding accountability, particularly when personnel from these entities commit international crimes. Who is held responsible for their actions? This article argues...
[Darío Bürky Arellano holds an MA in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute] On 6 May 2025, a new bill was presented to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: the “Draft Law on International Activities of Private Law Legal Entities in the Military and Security Spheres” (“Draft Law on PMSCs”). The proposal was referred to the parliament’s Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, and...
[Lindsay Freeman is the director of the Technology, Law & Policy program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law. She led the drafting of the United Nations’ Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations and developed the OSINT training course for the Institute of International Criminal Investigations. She previously worked for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and served as a...
[Madhumita Jayashankar is a final-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, specialising in international law with a major in political science] In recent decades, the landscape of global security has undergone a quiet but profound transformation. The privatization of military and security functions and services has surged since the end of the Cold War, fundamentally reshaping how states...
[Dr Asaf Lubin is an associate professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, an affiliated faculty at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and an affiliated fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project.] This post has been cross-posted on Private Security...
[Vincent Bernard is visiting lecturer at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He previously worked as senior policy advisor to the International Code of Conduct Association (ICoCA) and wrote the research report “Ensuring Responsible Security in the Digital Age: The application of the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers to Advanced Technologies”] The...
[Méryl Schwitzguébel, CFE, is a project officer at DCAF - Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance. Dr Ilia Siatitsa is currently programme director and senior legal officer at Privacy International.] Recently, surveillance technologies have captivated the public’s attention. From targeted attacks with spyware, like Pegasus or earlier FinFisher, to massive data scandals like Cambridge Analytica, these new technologies raise serious concerns for privacy, human...
[Dr Jelena Aparac is a senior academic and consultant, and former chair and member of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries] Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have significantly expanded their operations, sectors of activity, and client base over the past decades. They operate not only in armed conflict zones but also in areas of peace, across diverse industries such as extractive sectors,...
[Manon Blancafort is a project assistant at the Small Arms Survey and previously served for three years as an operational reservist in the French Air and Space Forces, within a Protection Squadron. Callum Watson is the gender coordinator and programme manager at the Small Arms Survey. Florence Foster is a senior project manager at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Jowita...