PRESS RELEASE : UN HRC54 – Statement on Mercenaries [September 2023]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 20 September 2023.

UK statement for the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Mercenaries. As delivered at the UN’s 54th Human Rights Council.

Thank you, Mr Vice President,

The UK would like to thank the Working Group for its report presented today, which sheds light on the escalating recruitment of mercenaries in conflict-affected settings and underscores the urgent need to address predatory recruitment practices.

The UK is committed to calling out human rights abuses by mercenaries and holding them to account. That includes those carrying out mercenary-like activities such as the Wagner Group in Africa, who are responsible for driving instability and violence in the region and committing widespread abuses, such as the killing of civilians, torture and sexual and gender-based violence.

It is vital that such groups are held to account and that their actions are exposed. That is why, last week the UK added Wagner Group to the list of proscribed terrorist organisations.

The UK will continue to condemn Wagner’s activities and will work to hold the Wagner Group and other malign actors to account for violating and abusing international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Chair of the Working Group,

What further steps can be taken to hold those operating for the Wagner Group in Africa to account for the instability, violence and abuses they have caused and committed across the continent?

Thank you.