Two reports published in December focused important attention on the complex issue of accountability for human rights violations perpetrated by private military companies (PMCs).
In the first, Candace Rondeaux examined international efforts to hold Russian PMCs accountable.https://www.justsecurity.org/105758/russia-wagner-group-in-court/ She foregrounded the case of Yan Petrovskiy, cofounder and commander of Rusich. Finland detained Petrovskiy in July 2023 and filed war crime charges against him in October 2024. His alleged offences include participation in the September 2014 ambush of Aidar Battalion near Metalist, Luhansk Oblast.
Finland is pursuing charges under universal jurisdiction for grave human rights abuses. Indeed, as Rondeaux discusses, Finland is leading the way on this approach to international justice, potentially setting precedents that can be used elsewhere. Rondeaux argues that the need for “creative mechanisms for pursuing international justice and accountability” will only increase once Donald Trump — who has been publicly hostile to the International Criminal Court (ICC) — returns to the US presidency.
The second report demonstrates why such efforts at accountability are so important. In it, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented human rights abuses committed by Mali’s armed forces, the Wagner Group, and Islamists since the withdrawal of the United Nations peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA in December 2023.https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/12/mali-atrocities-army-and-wagner-group These include the deliberate killing of at least 32 civilians by the Malian military and Wagner, the forcible disappearance of four more, and the burning of at least 100 homes. HRW noted a failure by the Malian authorities to hold anyone accountable for them, arguing this “has eased the way for further atrocities.”
Such claims are more than plausible: Some of the Wagner operations bear similarities to the notorious zachistki Russia perpetrated in Chechnya — where many Wagner fighters previously served, and where accountability was also lacking.