Photo credit: the official website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Paris, 15 February 2026 – The Mediterranean Centre for Peace and Security (CMPS) has submitted its report to the United Nations Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries to inform its thematic reports to be presented to the Human Rights Council in September and to the United Nations General Assembly in October/November. For 2026, the Working Group intends to dedicate its thematic report to the General Assembly to the use of mercenaries, mercenary-linked actors, and private military and/or security companies in organized criminal activities and illicit networks.
CMPS contribution highlights the emergence of a contemporary model of “criminal governance” based on the hybridization of state structures, paramilitary actors, and illicit economies. This shift marks the transition from traditional mercenary activity, centered on the individual, to entities formally integrated into state military apparatuses while pursuing extractive and commercial objectives. Based on a comparative analysis of the Central African Republic and Mali, CMPS demonstrates how the so-called “security for resources” model transforms security assistance into a mechanism for the sustainable appropriation of natural resources.
In the case of the Central African Republic, the contribution highlights the institutionalization of a system of mining concessions granted in exchange for security services, creating extra-jurisdictional enclaves where national administrative authority is neutralized and international traceability mechanisms are circumvented. In Mali, the analysis sheds light on the capture of strategic infrastructure and the structuring of parallel logistics hubs that facilitate the informal taxation of artisanal gold mining and the integration of these flows into illicit transnational networks. Although distinct in their operational modality, these two contexts produce a common effect: the erosion of fiscal sovereignty, the privatization of sovereign functions, and the consolidation of an autonomous paramilitary economy.
CMPS contribution also highlights the existence of a legal vacuum resulting from the formal integration of these actors within state military apparatuses. This hybrid structure allows them to circumvent traditional definitions of mercenary activity while making it particularly difficult to establish international responsibility before bodies such as the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court. This fragmented legal framework contributes to normalizing impunity and marginalizing victims, depriving them of effective remedies.
In response to these dynamics, CMPS calls for a functional revision of international instruments relating to mercenary activity to explicitly include hybrid actors with extractive motives, the integration of the crime of pillage into national legislation under universal jurisdiction, the strengthening of transparency obligations regarding foreign security assistance, and the adoption of specific risk indicators for mineral flows originating from areas under paramilitary control.
Contemporary mercenary activity is no longer a peripheral anomaly of armed conflicts. It constitutes an integrated architecture for resource capture and the dilution of responsibility. Filling this legal void is essential for the effective protection of the right of peoples to control their resources and for the integrity of the international legal order.
Contact: secretariat@cmps-med.org