Abstract:
Departing from the contemporary trend favourable to the re-conceptualisation of human rights in
terms of obligations of non state actors, this paper argues that and effective compliance with
international human right standards by private military and security companies can be achieved by a
complementary use of principles of state responsibility, in particular of responsibility of the home state
of the company, and of the criteria (territory-jurisdiction) that determine the substantive scope of
application of the human rights obligations with respect to the prevention and remediation of possible
abuses by private contractors. On the basis of an analysis of the relevant international law and
practice, this paper attempts to offer a preliminary identification of the regulatory standards required
to promote compliance with human rights by the emerging transnational military-security industry.
