Top Private Security Firms Sign Code of Conduct to Prevent Trafficking

Nearly 60 of the largest private security firms in the world, including notorious players like DynCorp and the Firm Formerly Known As Blackwater, recently signed a code of conduct. The agreement aims to prevent security forces from supporting forced labor and human trafficking, among other human rights violations. But will the code be enough to prevent the growing epidemic of child trafficking in Afghanistan, which is supported by security forces there?

There is a long history of private security firms being complicit in both labor and sex trafficking, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year, a former Blackwater guard reportedly witnessed his peers paying Iraqi girls as young as 12 for oral sex. In 2007, 90 Chinese women were freed from brothels in Afghanistan, where they were being held against their will, and where management for the U.S. security provider ArmorGroup openly bragged about how much money they made selling the women. And just recently, Afghan security forces were identified as being complicit in the trafficking of young boys via bacha bazi. Security firms have also been linked to forcing locals to work for them, everywhere from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan.

So will this new Code of Conduct be enough to change the practice of exploitation on the ground? The agreement does specifically prohibit firms from participating in human trafficking in any way, either through involvement in sex trafficking or forced labor. And it represents the first major step many of these companies have made toward stemming human trafficking and exploitation in the countries where they operate. But while this voluntary code of conduct can be a useful mechanism, it's just that -- voluntary. It's entirely unenforceable when it comes to implementation.

For example, take a situation like Afghanistan. In the past couple years, the ancient practice of bacha bazi-- wealthy men hiring young boys to dance at parties and then auctioning them off for sex later -- has re-surged. Reports from Afghanistan claim that not only are security forces within the country turning a blind eye to this practice, they are actively participating in it. What can a code of conduct do to prevent this form of trafficking? Even if the company who employs the men supporting bacha bazi is willing to terminate employees it catches in the act, how will they get caught? Bacha bazi is generally permissible in Afghan culture, widely ignored by the police there, and incredibly profitable. That means it's almost impossible to fight with corporate policies alone.

While the code of conduct is a good first step, it is insufficient to actually prevent forms of human trafficking like bacha bazi. Corporate responsibility like the code of conduct for private security firms needs to be combined with legally binding instruments at the national, regional and international levels. Tell the UN they need to create such a mechanism to prevent bacha bazi in Afghanistan. Because if they don't, the children of Afghanistan will just have to take Blackwater at their word that they'll keep them safe.

Photo credit: The U.S. Army