Private Security Monitor

The Sié Chéou-Kang Center, in cooperation with the Center for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces (DCAF) in Geneva, is developing a website to connect all existing information sources specific to the global private military and security industry. The Private Security Monitor is a research project that will promote access to information concerning the world-wide use and regulation of private military and security services. Through the creation and maintenance of an online portal, existing and emerging sources of information about the industry will be made publically available in one website with up-to-date links to regulations, reports, publications, and data. This site will provide lasting, important benefits to the public interest, in particular to researchers, regulators, and consumers of private security services who will be able use the information to demand better governance, oversight, and behavior of private security forces operating worldwide.

Project Background

While the privatization of security offers both states and non-state actors solutions to intractable security problems, the industry also affects the ability of states to contain the use of force within political processes. This has led activists, analysts, and governments to raise concerns that private forces can operate outside of the law or in a manner inconsistent with the obligations of international laws and norms.

In response to these concerns, a variety of regulatory initiatives have been launched. The U.S. government has passed some legislation and the Commission on Wartime Contracting has called for more. The Montreux Document, a soft law initiative that outlines responsibilities for states engaged with the industry, was issued in 2008 and supported by thirty seven states as of 2011. A follow-up initiative, the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers, lays out principles by which the private security portion of the industry should abide and has recently unveiled a draft charter for an Independent Governance and Oversight Mechanism. An ongoing process is underway to create an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and then an International Standards Organization (ISO) management and assessment standard for private security providers consistent with the Montreux Document and the International Code of Conduct.

Despite all of these legislative and regulatory efforts, the lack of systematic information-sharing about the industry poses significant problems for those researching it, for those attempting to regulate it, and even for industry members seeking recognition for proper behavior. Without easily accessible information it is difficult to accurately evaluate whether companies and their clients are abiding by their legal and ethical responsibilities. Publicly available information is crucial both to the success of regulation and to systematic academic research on the impacts of this industry.

Accordingly, the Private Security Monitor project was created to support governance in this sector by serving as an annotated guide to laws, data, reports and analysis related to the private provision of military and security services.

The Private Security Monitor website is expected to launch by August 2012.