Report On The Question Of The Use Of Mercenaries As A Means Of Violating Human Rights And Impeding The Exercise Of The Right Of Peoples To Self-Determination / Submitted By Enrique Bernales Ballesteros, Special Rapporteur, Pursuant To Commission Resolution 2002/5

In this report the Special Rapporteur relates his activities and indicates the correspondence he received in 2002. The Special Rapporteur makes particular mention of the second meeting of experts on mercenaries, organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which took place in Geneva from 13 to 17 May 2002. He then goes on to review the current status of mercenary activities, in particular on the African continent. He draws attention to positive developments, such as the ceasefire agreement signed in Angola on 5 April 2002 between the Chief of Staff of the Angolan armed forces and the Chief of Staff of the Uníão Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA); the concluding in Pretoria on 30 July 2002 of the Peace Agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda; the ceasefire in the Sudan; and the holding of presidential and legislative elections in Sierra Leone on 14 May 2002.