Yesterday the Swiss Federal Departement of Foreign Affairs announced that nearly 60 firms have signed the International Code of Conduct for Providers of Private Security. The CoC is a follow-up document to the Montreux Document from 2008 which had been perceived positively by the international community.

The ICoC "is based on the assumption that companies must respect human rights independently from the condition of national state law."

"International law is only applicable to non-state actors in certain limited circumstances, whereas an International Code of Conduct overcomes these legal and theoretical ambiguities. If companies express their commitment to respect these standards, the International Code of Conduct can become the basic document to spell out rules for private security providers and offer practical advice on how to deal with them"

The press release can be found here: http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/....html?id=36144

The CoC can be found here: http://www.news.admin.ch/NSBSubscrib...ents/21143.pdf

While the Montreux Document can be found here: http://www.eda.admin.ch/etc/medialib...Broschuere.pdf

Neutral Greetings PB