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Côte d’Ivoire: UN experts welcome efforts to prevent mercenary related activities and call on authorities to safeguard newly established stability
ABIDJAN (13 March 2024) – UN experts today welcomed Côte d’Ivoire’s commitment to achieving stability, rebuilding core institutions, strengthening the security sector and ensuring socioeconomic development in the country.
“We welcome the government’s efforts to unite the country towards social cohesion and prosperity, 10 years after our last visit to the country,” the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries and private military and security companies said in a statement, following a 10-day visit to Côte d’Ivoire.
During the visit, experts from the Working Group gathered information on the laws and procedures criminalising mercenary activities. They also focused on the activities of private security companies and their impact on human rights.
The experts welcomed the strong commitment received from the authorities to ratify the 1989 International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries and the African Union Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism.
“We urge authorities to ratify both treaties within the next months, as committed by representatives of the Ministry of Justice,” said Carlos Salazar Couto, Chair of the Working Group.
The UN experts also expressed concern about the 2018 Amnesty Ordinance granting amnesty to 800 people accused or indicted for crimes linked to the 2010-11 post-election crisis, including serious human rights violations.
“While we welcome efforts by authorities to prevent and deter the commission of future crimes through reconciliation measures, it is our strong view that reconciliation and justice, rather than being exclusive, are mutually reinforcing,” the experts said.
“We were not satisfied with the information provided by authorities on measures taken to address crimes committed by mercenaries during past conflicts in Côte d’Ivoire,” they said.
The experts also noted that equal access to economic and social rights across the country was key to preventing the risk of youth in Côte d’Ivoire turning to mercenary related activities,” Salazar Couto said.
“We urge the Government to continue to ensure an equal distribution of economic resources throughout the country and increase measures to fight corruption,” the experts said.
Observing that the country had witnessed an exponential rise in private security companies, the Working Group highlighted challenges around identifying an accurate figure of both employees and companies active in the country.
They also pointed to an absence of a framework to regulate the activities of private military companies.
“The increasing involvement of foreign private military companies in armed conflicts and their contracting by neighbouring States raises serious concerns regarding the lack of regulation of those non-state actors in Côte d’Ivoire itself,” the Working Group said.
The delegation held meetings in Abidjan, Korhogo and Ouangolodougou with representatives from relevant governmental authorities at national and prefecture levels, non-governmental organisations, the private security industry and other stakeholders.
The Working Group will present its report on the visit to the Human Rights Council in September 2024.
*The experts: Carlos Salazar Couto (Chair-Rapporteur), Ravindran Daniel, Chris Kwaja, Sorcha MacLeod, Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito, Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the rights of peoples to self-determination.
The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
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