This week, four private security contractors to the US Department of Defense were sentenced to extended prison terms for the gruesome shooting of 31 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, in 2007.  The sentences come on the heels of the US Government’s third and penultimate consultation on the role of the US Government in ensuring that American corporations respect human rights abroad.

The consultation, held in Norman, Oklahoma, focused on private security as one of three primary issues of concern, alongside extractive industries and indigenous rights issues. While the State Department has taken steps to require its private security contractors to sign the International Code of Conduct and adhere to ICOCA standards, the commitment does not extend across government agencies. The Department of Defense, for example, does not require its defense contractors to belong to the ICOCA.

Participants at last week’s meeting made clear that that should change.

Not only is defense contracting one of the clearest areas where government contractors pose human rights risks to civilians abroad, it is also an arena that is increasingly of concern to global industries that hire private security for their operations. Petroleum and mining companies are among the largest clients for private security companies, and they have struggled for years to ensure that their operations are not complicit in human rights violations.

Extractive companies were strongly represented at the consultation in Norman, seeking clear guidance from the US Government on how best to do that. A government lead on commitment to the ICOCA would be a start. Another major advancement would be government lead transparency. Companies have been reluctant to publish the human rights due diligence they carry out in their operations. No company wants to be the first mover, and all can hide behind the fact that other companies comparably opaque about how they manage human rights risks. The result is that companies’ claims that they are respecting human rights cannot be tested, and their human rights due diligence cannot be determined to be satisfactory in form or content. Transparency is a core human rights value.

The US Government could publish the human rights due diligence of its own contractors, and it could encourage large multinational corporations to follow suit.

It is impossible to know whether human rights due diligence of Blackwater’s operations in Iraq might have identified training shortfalls and stressful conditions among Blackwater employees that could have prevented the tragedy in Nisour Square. However, publication of such due diligence could have raised warning flags for other security contractors whose practices are similar, and publication of weak due diligence could have raised warning flags for the US Government that its contractors were ill equipped for the job at hand.

NomoGaia will be contributing input to the National Action Plan based on our practitioners’ knowledge and experience. If you have insight that might tip the scales toward improving human rights outcomes for populations affected by American businesses abroad, send comments to NAP-RBC@state.gov.

(Photo credit: Heath Powell, 2006)