The Evolving Contingency Contracting Market PKSOI Papers | Page 21

The ICoC for Private Security Service Providers
(PSPs) aims to improve industry accountability by establishing an independent oversight mechanism that
will monitor reporting and address grievances, and
also contains a set of principles that articulate and reinforce the obligations of private firms regarding international humanitarian law and human rights law.
Once established and operational, the ICoC framework and broader governance mechanism will strive
to expand its coverage beyond PSPs into all sectors of
the stability operations industry in the future.
Supporting the International Code of Conduct
for Private Security Service Providers is a unique opportunity for citizens and consumers worldwide to
articulate support for a cross-sector initiative striving
to set high standards for ethical operations in conflict
areas and complex environments. In a time when
private security companies and many other contingency contracting firms are often criticized for a lack
of transparency, the tax-paying public and relevant
stakeholders should take the opportunity to request,
if not demand, that their governments and other PSP
service consumers endorse and explicitly support the
aims of this initiative and the commitments of signatory companies.
Case Study II: Private Firm FSI Addresses Human
Trafficking Proactively
Unbeknownst to much of the general public, substantial shares of USG contracting expenditures go
to employ host country nationals (HCNs) and third
country nationals (TCNs) to provide services that
would prove to be prohibitively expensive were they
staffed by American citizens at U.S. pay rates. Ac-

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