AI, Drones and Digital Spying Fuel UN Alarm Over Mercenary Abuses

Military and security services provided for profit increasingly involve digital tools, giving private operators new ways to conduct surveillance, carry out cyber operations and support participation in conflict.

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence, surveillance systems and drones are changing how mercenaries and private military companies operate, exposing people to threats that governments are struggling to regulate, UN experts have warned. In a report presented to the Human Rights Council, the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries described an expanding role for technology in recruiting fighters, gathering intelligence, influencing public opinion and conducting armed operations. Their concern reaches beyond the battlefield to people whose privacy, safety and freedom can be threatened through a screen.

The Expanding Reach of Private Military Power

Military and security services provided for profit increasingly involve digital tools, giving private operators new ways to conduct surveillance, carry out cyber operations and support participation in conflict. The Working Group said this shift is challenging the systems meant to oversee their activities and hold them responsible for abuses. Questions about who supplies a technology, who controls its use and who answers for the harm it causes become harder to resolve when companies and operations stretch across national borders.

For journalists, human rights defenders, students and political opponents, these developments raise concerns about the use of sophisticated technology against people because of their work, views or identity. The experts also identified risks to Indigenous Peoples, ethnic and religious minorities, activists and communities living through conflict. Their warning places the experiences of people exposed to surveillance and other digital threats at the centre of a debate often focused on technical capabilities and military advantage.

Recruitment and Disinformation Through a Screen

The Working Group expressed particular concern about digital tools and social media being used to recruit people into armed activities, including young people and children. Platforms that people use to communicate and find information can become channels for recruitment, disinformation and harmful narratives, bringing the influence of armed actors into everyday online life. The experts said legal and regulatory protections have failed to keep pace with the speed of technological development, leaving serious gaps in the response to these risks.

Establishing responsibility for abuses becomes difficult when the evidence runs through complicated supply chains, concealed corporate relationships and encrypted communications. The report also identifies cross-border operations and AI systems that can be difficult to understand or investigate as obstacles to accountability. For someone seeking answers about an alleged violation, these barriers can complicate the process of identifying the actors involved and determining how a particular product or service contributed to the harm.

Governments and Companies Urged to Act

The experts called on governments to strengthen oversight of private military and security actors and make human rights protections part of decisions about purchasing technology and controlling its export. They also urged States to ensure that victims of technology-enabled mercenary abuses have access to effective remedies, placing responsibility on public authorities to address the consequences of violations. "The development and deployment of technology must strengthen human security, not undermine it," the Working Group said.

Technology companies, cybersecurity firms and private security providers were urged to examine the human rights risks connected to their products and services and take steps to prevent misuse. The experts specifically warned against facilitating unlawful surveillance, disinformation campaigns and autonomous targeting without meaningful human control. Presented at the Human Rights Council's 63rd session, the report calls for accountability to remain central to the development and use of emerging technologies, with protections that reflect the real dangers facing people affected by private military and security operations.