Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination

A/RES/56/232View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 118 Right of peoples to self-determination, published in 2002.

What else is in this group?

30 documents · 1999–2026

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2026).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2026	A/HRC/RES/63/5	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,835	–
2025	A/RES/80/194	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,724	–
2024	A/RES/79/162	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,722	–
2024	A/HRC/RES/57/8	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,838	–
2023	A/RES/78/191	Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination	1,724	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

What’s in this document?

17 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination;⁴

⁴See A/56/224.

Reaffirms that the use of mercenaries and their recruitment, financing and training are causes for grave concern to all States and violate the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations;

Recognizes that armed conflict, terrorism, arms trafficking and covert operations by third Powers, inter alia, encourage the demand for mercenaries on the global market;

Urges all States to take the necessary steps and to exercise the utmost vigilance against the menace posed by the activities of mercenaries and to take legislative measures to ensure that their territories and other territories under their control, as well as their nationals, are not used for the recruitment, assembly, financing, training and transit of mercenaries for the planning of activities designed to impede the right of peoples to self-determination, to destabilize or overthrow the Government of any State or to dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent States conducting themselves in compliance with the right of peoples to self-determination;

Welcomes the recent entry into force of the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries,⁵ and calls upon all States that have not yet done so to consider taking the necessary action to sign or ratify it, as a matter of priority;

⁵Resolution 44/34, annex.

Welcomes also the cooperation extended by those countries that have received visits from the Special Rapporteur;

Welcomes further the adoption by some States of national legislation that restricts the recruitment, assembly, financing, training and transit of mercenaries;

Calls upon States to investigate the possibility of mercenary involvement whenever and wherever criminal acts of a terrorist nature occur and to bring to trial those found responsible or to consider their extradition, if so requested, in accordance with domestic law and applicable bilateral or international treaties;

Welcomes the convening by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights of a meeting of experts on the question of traditional and new forms of mercenary activities as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, and takes note of its report,⁶ as a valuable contribution to the process of formulating a clearer legal definition of mercenaries that would make more efficient the prevention and punishment of mercenary activities;

⁶E/CN.4/2001/18, annex.

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to convene, before the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on Human Rights, a second meeting of experts, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 54/151 of 17 December 1999, to continue studying and updating the international legislation and to make recommendations for a clearer legal definition of mercenaries that would make more efficient the prevention and punishment of mercenary activities;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to propose a clearer definition of mercenaries, including clear nationality criteria, based on his findings, the proposals of States and the outcomes of the meetings of experts, and to make suggestions on the procedure to be followed for international adoption of a new definition;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner, as a matter of priority, to publicize the adverse effects of the activities of mercenaries on the right of peoples to self-determination and, when requested and where necessary, to render advisory services to States that are affected by the activities of mercenaries;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to continue taking into account in the discharge of his mandate the fact that mercenary activities continue to occur in many parts of the world and are taking on new forms, manifestations and modalities;

Urges all States to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur in the fulfilment of his mandate;

Requests the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner to provide the Special Rapporteur with all the necessary assistance and support for the fulfilment of his mandate, both professional and financial, including through the promotion of cooperation between the Special Rapporteur and other components of the United Nations system that deal with countering mercenary-related activities;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to consult States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in the implementation of the present resolution and to report, with specific recommendations, to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session his findings on the use of mercenaries to undermine the right of peoples to self-determination;

Decides to consider at its fifty-seventh session the question of the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination under the item entitled “Right of peoples to self-determination”.

Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What else is in this group?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents