Improving Human Rights in the Private Security Industry: Envisioning the Role of ICoCA in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-107
Author(s):  
Cristina NARVÁEZ GONZÁLEZ ◽  
Katharine VALENCIA
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
Private Security Industry ◽  
Security Companies

AbstractThe private security industry in Latin America has been associated with human rights abuses, particularly in the context of extractive operations. Most private security guards in the region are poorly trained and do not undergo adequate vetting. These factors combined with serious deficiencies in the rule of law across the region too often enable private security companies to effectively operate outside state control and engage in human rights abusive practices. This article argues that adoption of the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Providers (ICoC) by Latin American private security companies and states, coupled with civil society engagement with ICoC’s Association, may help reduce negative human rights impacts arising out of private security services within the extractive industry.

scholarly journals Human rights violations committed by private military and security companies: an international law analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 753-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elzbieta Karska
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Private Security ◽  
International Community ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
Private Security Industry ◽  
International Conventions ◽  
Security Companies

Abstract: This paper is devoted to the growing phenomenon of the private military and security industry with respect to human rights obligations. In the first part, it will analyze the concept of a private security company, which is not clear in national regulations and has few relevant provisions in international conventions. The second part will contain a short description of examples of human rights violations committed by private military and security companies, or with their participation, during service delivery or other forms of activity. The third part of this paper discusses possible methods of responsibility enforcement, with respect to the transnational character of many private security companies involved in human rights violations worldwide. One of the most important elements of the discussion in international community should focus on binding international instrument, preferably a convention, which would be able to establish at least very elementary rules for states and international organizations, responsible for using private military and security companies. The international community has witnessed a lot of initiatives from non-governmental entities, also model laws and self-regulations of the private security industry, but still the real problem has not even been reduced. The number of human rights violations has grown. Keywords: Human rights. Private security companies. Liability.

Uneasy Partners Against Crime: The Ambivalent Relationship Between the Police and the Private Security Industry in Mexico

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Logan Puck
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
Mexican State ◽  
Private Security Industry ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
Security Companies

AbstractLegitimation is a fraught process for private security companies operating in Mexico and other countries in the Global South where the police have a poor reputation. Mexican private security companies have an ambivalent relationship with the police, which causes firms to engage in two seemingly contradictory practices. Companies attempt to gain legitimacy by aligning with the image of the police to earn a sense of “symbolic stateness” while simultaneously distancing themselves from Mexico's actual police forces so as to disassociate from the institution's poor reputation. Consequently, collaboration between public and private security is limited, despite official attempts by the Mexican state to foster positive contact between them. Overall, this study contributes to the growing literature on private security by providing novel insights into the strategies private security firms utilize to navigate within states possessing delegitimated security forces, and the resulting lucrative political economy landscape.

scholarly journals Private Military and Security Companies in UN Peacekeeping Operations: Problems and Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-77
Author(s):  
М. A. Nebolsina
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Security Market ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Private Security Industry ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
Security Companies

While some of the UN member states refrain from providing peacekeepers due to security reasons, the UN frequently turns to the private security market for support. In turn, private military and security companies (PMSCs) take on risky missions and fill in the procurement gaps. It is common practice to criticize PMSCs for not having a clear international legal status, operating in the “grey” area of the law and not being accountable for their actions. Furthermore, the UN often equates PMSCs to mercenaries of the past and calls for strict regulation and surveillance of their activities. This practice has remained unchanged since the 1992 reforms, and the UN has done nothing to reduce the involvement of PMSCs in peacekeeping missions. On the contrary, it has, under pressure from lobbyists for the private security industry, actually increased security expenditures for PMSCs by unprecedented amounts. The UN’s position as a unique universal intergovernmental organization exempts it from a great deal of transparency, accountability and reform. While the private security industry includes various PMSCs that compete for contracts in conflict zones and post-conflict areas, the UN does not have any kind of competitor in peacekeeping procedures. The UN criticizes PMSCs for their blatant human rights violations and disregard of international law, yet continues to contract them for its peacekeeping missions. This paper examines the problem of involving PMSCs in UN peacekeeping operations. It aims to answer the following main questions: How do PMSCs, as partners of the UN in the peacekeeping process, contribute to the protection of human rights, which is one of the organization’s basic declared principles? Can PMSCs become a recognized instrument within the UN system? Would UN peacekeeping eff orts improve as a result of hiring PMSCs?

Private security companies and domestic violence: A welcome new development?

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diarmaid Harkin ◽  
Kate Fitz-Gibbon
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
The Poor ◽  
New Development ◽  
Private Security Industry

Due to the poor reputation of the private security industry and the multiple lines of concerns raised by scholars over the potentially corrosive costs of commercial security provision, it is important to consider whether for-profit companies are a welcome addition to the network of actors who respond to the needs of domestic violence victims. Using the case study of ‘Protective Services’ in Victoria, Australia, who appear to be one of the first known instances of a private security company offering services to victims of domestic violence, we argue that there may be advantages for victims engaging with commercial providers and reasons for optimism that commercial outfits can improve feelings of safety for a particularly vulnerable and under-protected population.

Certifying Private Security Companies: Effectively Ensuring the Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights?

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-77
Author(s):  
Sorcha MACLEOD ◽  
Rebecca DEWINTER-SCHMITT
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Management Standards ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
Norm Compliance ◽  
Security Companies

AbstractThe key purpose of this article is to critically assess the extent to which auditing and certification to quality assurance and risk management standards containing human rights-related requirements are an adequate and effective means of ensuring that private security companies internalize their responsibility to respect human rights. Based on participant observation, interviews and publicly accessible data, it concludes that in the absence of the adoption of specific assurance measures in the certification and oversight processes, the constructivist ‘tipping point’ resulting in the internalization of the corporate responsibility to respect may not be attained when there is inadequate norm compliance or, worse yet, norm regression.

Market Opportunities and Political Responsibilities: The Difficult Development of Chinese Private Security Companies Abroad

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-45
Author(s):  
Andrea Ghiselli
Keyword(s):  
Private Security ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Initial Development ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
Market Opportunities ◽  
Overseas Operations ◽  
Security Companies

Building upon the conceptual work of Krahmann and Habermas, this study explains how political power and market forces in China combined to create an enormous domestic market for overseas security services and, at the same time, undermined the full development of domestic private security companies (PSCs). The growing responsiveness of the state to the request for protection of Chinese citizens and assets abroad made room for the initial development of Chinese PSCs’ overseas operations. However, the policy makers’ focus on political loyalty has inhibited the full-fledged maturation of China’s private security industry. So far, large foreign PSCs have been the main beneficiaries of this situation. The future development of Chinese PSCs remains possible in a gradual and pragmatic way, but Chinese policy makers will have to deal with important diplomatic and political questions before the development of any “Chinese Blackwater” will be imaginable.

scholarly journals Private military and security companies’ logos: Between camouflaging and corporate socialization

2020 ◽  
pp. 096701062092358
Author(s):  
Eugenio Cusumano
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Market ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Visual Identity ◽  
Private Security Industry ◽  
Shifting Identities ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Peircean Semiotics ◽  
Security Companies

International relations scholarship has paid insufficient attention to security providers’ tendency to emulate the visual attributes of other actors in an attempt to (re)construct their identities and increase their legitimacy by signalling adherence to prevailing norms. Research on the discourses deployed by private military and security companies (PMSCs), for instance, has relied almost exclusively on the analysis of written documents. This article argues that even basic visual units like logos serve as windows into the genealogy and evolution of the international market for force. By combining insights from Peircean semiotics and institutionalist theory, I show that PMSCs’ logos are not only marketing tools, but also symbolic acts that shed light upon the shifting identities and legitimization strategies of the international private security industry. Specifically, I argue that PMSCs’ logos can be conceptualized as forms of camouflaging, blame-shifting, mirroring and socialization into corporate identities. These overlapping processes have reshaped the international private security industry brandscape, informing a shift away from the use of logos displaying symbols and colours borrowed from military visual identity systems.

scholarly journals Using the competing values framework (CVF) to investigate organisational culture in a major private security company

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Kokt ◽  
C Van der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Competing Values Framework ◽  
Competing Values ◽  
The South ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
African Context ◽  
Private Security Industry ◽  
Fierce Competition

The proliferation of crime, especially in the South African context, has placed considerable emphasis on the private security industry.  This has also increased fierce competition in the private security domain with both national and international private security companies infiltrating the South African market.  Like public policing private security has an important role to play in combating crime and other transgressions, with the exception that private security owes its existence to paying customers.  By using the Competing Values Framework (CVF) as conceptual guide, the researchers are able to provide the managers of the company under investigation with insight on how their cultural orientation affects their functioning and ultimately their competitive advantage.

Human Rights on the March: Repression, Oppression, and Protest in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Latin American Countries

Abstract This research examines the impact of human rights protests on human rights abuses in seven Latin American countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. I find that protests focused broadly on human rights are associated with significant declines in human rights abuses, controlling for important factors from previous studies. Furthermore, I argue that it is important to distinguish political repression (abuses that target political activists) from coercive state oppression, which has nonpolitical targets. These two types of abuses respond to different factors, but broadly focused human rights protests are found to decrease both types of abuses. I argue further that a strong human rights movement, indicated by frequent human rights protests, discourages the police abuses associated with oppression by raising the likelihood of accountability for such abuses, including by improving the likelihood of reforms to the criminal justice system.

scholarly journals National, International and Legal Mechanisms of Control over the Activity of Non-Government Security Entities

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
М. В. Завальний
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Private Security ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Physical Force ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
Business Structures ◽  
Security Companies

The author of the article has studied the reasons for introducing a control mechanism over the activities of private security companies, which play an increasingly important role in the security sector worldwide. These companies by providing security services, directly influence the security, human rights and democratic order of the country. In this regard, it has been emphasized that the issues of legal regulation of the activities and responsibilities of private security companies are particularly important for society and the state. The importance of controlling private security companies and security services is conditioned by the particularities of the services provided by these entities. Private security companies in the course of their activities can apply physical force, special means (in some countries even firearms) to citizens, carry out their detention, which in turn can cause degrading treatment and physical suffering. Further privatization and outsourcing in the security sector has led to a significant expansion of this area and increased risks of human rights and freedoms’ violations. The author has stated that the purpose of control over the activity of non-government entities in the field of security and safety is to prevent deviations from the established order of state security and public order protection, prevention, detection and termination of actions that harm the protected state interests. The need to strengthen this control is due to two main aspects: 1) there is a need to raise the standards of corporate governance in the field of non-governmental protection of human rights; 2) there is a more general tendency to regulate the behavior of all business structures regarding human rights in all areas of their activities. The author has distinguished four possible ways to influence private security companies: national legal systems and courts; corporate norms; international and regional voluntary initiatives; international and legal regulation.

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