Resources

The Montreux Document: On Pertinent International Legal Obligations and Good Practices for States Related to Operations of Private Military and Security Companies During Armed Conflict

ICRC and Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

2008

Today, PMSCs are viewed in some quarters as an indispensable ingredient of military undertakings. Since the end of the Cold War, demand for PMSCs has increased to such an extent that there is now a lively PMSC industry offering an ever wider range of services, with some companies employing well beyond 10,000 staff. In terms of scale and scope of services involved, PMSCs today are a wholly new phenomenon.In response, several diplomatic initiatives were launched to clarify what the role of PMSCs in armed conflicts is and should be. Yet it was only with the Montreux Document of September 2008, the fruit of a joint initiative by the Swiss Government and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), that the discussion around PMSCs was carefully brought to a first conclusion. This document ariticulates the international legal obligations with regard to PMSCs and seeks to debunk the notion that these actors operate in a legal vacuum.