MERCURY - Mercenarism and the Accountability Void: Finding routes to accountability and remedy for the victims of human rights abuses perpetrated by mercenaries

The recent increasing use of mercenaries in armed conflicts such as in Libya, Central African Republic, Nagorno-Karabakh, Mali, and Ukraine has focused attention on some of the problems arising from the deployment of these private actors. Their involvement in proxy wars, predatory recruitment, and asymmetric warfare, which internationalise, exacerbate, and prolong armed conflicts, creates space for grave human rights abuses and war crimes. Millions of people are directly negatively impacted by mercenaries globally, but accountability is rare, and so these actors operate with impunity, their victims denied access to justice and redress. In essence, mercenaries operate in an accountability void. Academic attention until now has focused on the anti-mercenary norm, definitions of mercenary, and treatment of mercenaries, but there is little research on how accountability and remedy is ensured for victims of mercenarism.

MERCURY focuses on this accountability void, combining cutting-edge, data-driven mapping and analysis of mercenary operations with thorough legal and qualitative analysis. The mapping will provide a novel understanding of mercenaries to underpin groundbreaking legal analysis of the shortcomings and weaknesses of national and international frameworks when it comes to remedies for victims. Via legal and qualitative analysis, MERCURY will evaluate routes to accountability and remedy via international and national human rights courts, tribunals, mechanisms, and transitional justice processes, and propose potential pathways to justice for victims.

MERCURY is a 5-year €2M project that will offer pioneering scholarly insights into routes to accountability and remedy. The richer understanding derived from MERCURY will help inform stakeholders on how they can better prevent abuses perpetrated by mercenaries, or failing that, ensure accountability and redress for victims.

Events and past events

October 2024

Collaboration In October 2024 Ula Kos, Salome Addo Ravn, and Sorcha MacLeod travelled to Washington DC to work and train with MERCURY project collaborator C4ADS. C4ADS is a non-profit organisation which develops tools for, conducts data-driven analysis of, and provides evidence-based reporting on global conflict and transnational security issues. You can read more about the fascinating work of C4ADS here. In addition, the MERCURY team organised a research workshop with a team investigating mercenaries from UC Berkeley School of Law’s Human Rights Center led by Lindsay Freeman. The workshop was hosted by New America and the teams spent a day discussing synergies between the projects, sharing sources/data, and sharing lessons learned and challenges, as well as planning future collaborations.

Event Sorcha MacLeod was invited to speak at a New America Future Frontlines Briefing Uncovering Wagner: Legal Frameworks and Strategic Implications organised by Candace Rondeaux and Ben Dalton in Washington DC, 22 October 2024. Sorcha made remarks alongside Susanna Sacouto from the War Crimes Research Office of the Washington College of Law, American University. The briefing was attended by representatives from States, civil society, and academia. You can read more about the Uncovering Wagner project here.

10-11 September 2024

Conference Sorcha MacLeod was invited to contribute to an expert panel Stopping the misuse of Virtual Assets by Mercenaries and Private Militaries at the Global Coalition for Fighting Financial Crime Annual Summit 2024 Stockholm, Sweden. The conference programme and materials are here. A journal article on the financing of mercenarism is in preparation.

29-30 July 2024

Conference Sorcha MacLeod was invited to participate at the West Africa Security Conference organised by CRDF Global and the US State Department, Office of Cooperative Threat Reduction, in Accra, Ghana, 29-30 July 2024. She spoke on three Expert Panels (1) Exploring the Security Landscape in West Africa; (2) Legislation and Private Military and Security Companies; and (3) Private Military and Security Companies in the Logistics, Shipping and Maritime Sectors. You can read more about the conference here.

29 July 2024

Podcast This month Sorcha MacLeod was invited to contribute to a podcast by the Mobilising Men for Feminist Peace Programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Hosted by Dean Peacock and Reem Abbas, Sorcha was a guest alongside Bassam Al-Ahmad, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Syrians for Truth and Justice for the episode ‘How the MENA region has become a hotspot for mercenaries.’ You can listen to the podcast on Spotify.

4 July 2024

Event Sorcha MacLeod was invited to speak at United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (UNRCPD)/Prajnya Trust, Disarmament Toolkit 2024. She spoke on an Expert Roundtable on State, Markets, War, and Patriarchy. You can learn more about the Disarmament Toolkit 2024 and watch the panel discussion here.

27-28 June 2024

Conference Sorcha MacLeod and Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito (University of Twente) presented their paper ‘The financing of contemporary mercenarism: resources, routes, and regulation’ on a panel Private Actors, Armed Conflict and the State, at the European Initiative for Security Studies Annual Conference 2024, Prague, Czech Republic. A journal article on the financing of mercenarism is in preparation. You can read more about the conference, including the programme, here.

24 May 2024

Event Sorcha MacLeod was invited to speak at a one-day closed Expert Roundtable on Private Military Companies organised by MERCURY collaborator C4ADS, in Washington DC. The event brought together civil society stakeholders, policymakers and investigators, as well as academia. Topics included, enforcement of and accountability for human rights violations, the Wagner Group Post-Prigozhin, and effective policy approaches.

22 May 2024

Event Together with the Center for Protection of Civilians (CIVIC) and DCAF – Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, Sorcha MacLeod co-organised a closed expert panel for UN Protection of Civilians Week at the Australian Mission to the UN in New York on Protecting Civilians from Harm: Strengthening Accountability for Private Military and Security Companies. She also participated in the panel and presented on ‘Private Military and Security Companies: Pathways to accountability and remedy for civilians: Accountability, regulation, actors, and jurisdictional issues.’ Other experts participating were Jean-Michel Rousseau (DCAF) Dr. Erica Gaston, (UN University, Center for Policy Research), Felip Daza (NOVACT), and Margaret Satterthwaite, (UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers). You can find the Concept Note for the event here.

7 May 2024

Event Sorcha MacLeod was invited to participate in an Expert Roundtable on Private military companies: Consequences for peace? at the Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development 2024, Stockholm, Sweden. You can read more about the panel and the Forum here.

Researchers

Name	Title
Sorcha MacLeod	Associate Professor
Cristina Valdés Argüelles	PhD Fellow
Ula Aleksandra Kos	Postdoc
Salome Addo Ravn	Postdoc
Milena Christine Götzke	Student

Funding

MERCURY Mercenarism and the Accountability Void has received ERC Consolidator Grant 5-year €2M from the European Research Council.

Project: MERCURY Mercenarism and the Accountability Void: Finding routes to accountability and remedy for the victims of human rights abuses perpetrated by mercenaries
(Application number: 101126248)

Period: 2024-2029

ERC announcements:

Consolidator Grants 2023: Examples of projects

Consolidator Grants: ERC unleashes €627m in grants to fuel excellent research across Europe