The United Nations Human Rights Council assembly room.  Photo: AFP

 
China urged the US and Australia to take concrete measures to effectively regulate private military and security companies during a dialogue with the Working Group on the use of mercenaries held by the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

China calls on the US, Australia and other countries to respect, promote and protect human rights, take concrete measures to effectively monitor the activities of private military and security companies, prevent human rights violations and hold those responsible for human rights violations accountable, said Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the UN in Geneva, at the session. 

He noted that China is concerned about the lack of transparency, supervision and accountability in the private military and security services of the US, Australia and other countries. 

Employees of some private US militaries and security companies committed serious crimes, such as killing unarmed civilians abroad, yet they were pardoned by the US government. Australia's offshore detention centers have long been holding a large number of migrants in custody, resulting in appalling human rights violations. The harsh living conditions in these detention centers run by private military and security companies have caused long-term physical and mental suffering to the detainees, with unnatural deaths occurring from time to time, said Jiang. 

The US and Australian governments have failed to take effective supervision over relevant private military and security companies, which has led to serious violations of human rights of civilians and migrants in other countries and exacerbated the risk of impunity, he said.