What is it about?
The definition contained in the 1989 International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries sets out a number of prerequisites revolving around the foreign character of the mercenary and his motivation. Such conditions are at the origin of the difficulties to apply the 1989 Convention that has proved unworkable to deal with the phenomenon of mercenarism.
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Why is it important?
The article underscores that the difficulties to apply the definition of mercenary contained in the international instruments stems out from the emphasis that has been placed of the phenomenon of mercenarism on the goal or the purpose of the individual and not to the external or objective elements of the crime.
Perspectives
Today’s fanatical foreign fighters are a new form of mercenarism unknown in the 1960’s when the United Nations and the international community were faced with the phenomenon. Perhaps the time is already ripe to consider as to whether the real danger on international peace and security that represented the activities of mercenaries in the 1960’s has not been replaced in the 2010’s by these configurations of non-state armed groups and individuals increasingly taking part in hostilities and armed conflicts.
Mr. Jose Luis Gomez del Prado
Universitat de Barcelona
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Whether the Criteria Contained in the 1989 International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries Notably Motivation Apply to Today’s Foreign Fighters?, International Community Law Review, December 2016, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/18719732-12341339.
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