Outsourcing Security and International Corporate Responsibility: A Critical Analysis of Private Military Companies (PMCs) and Human Rights Violations

Since the post-Cold War era, contemporary conflicts have increasingly been marked by the prevalence of non-state actors, particularly private military companies (PMCs). Scholars and activists from a multitude of disciplines have identified the threat non-state actors can pose to the very centrality of the international human rights system, since it has predominantly maintained a state-centric approach in terms of both responsibilities and obligations with respect to the protection of human rights. Occurring in parallel, the emerging business and human rights agenda has identified the enormous capacity business enterprises (particularly transnational corporations) have in negatively impacting the enjoyment of fundamental human rights throughout their sphere of operations. PMCs, as multinational private actors in conflict zones, are by default placed on the margins of the current international legal and regulatory framework, despite their continuous involvement in heinous abuses and grave breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though much attention has been devoted towards analyzing the inadequacies of state responsibility and the need for international corporate responsibility through the business and human rights agenda and leading international organizations, far less systemic research has been devoted towards analyzing the complexity and implications of business-conflict linkages. This thesis therefore integrates PMCs within the scope of the business and human rights agenda and rigorously explores the need for binding international corporate responsibility in light of the severe limitations of the current framework.