Per la Pau / Peace in Progress

The seminar "Companies in Conflict Situations", organized by the ICIP, which brought together forty international experts working from different perspectives in both academia and organizations, was held in Barcelona on 20 and 21 October. The participants included representatives of SIPRI, Amnesty International, OECD, Sherpa and Global Witness, among other organizations, and specialists in international criminal law, private military security companies, the arms trade and the exploitation of natural resources.

At the two-day conference, the experts discussed the role played by the private sector in armed and other conflict situations, such as environmental conflicts. They debated the ways for business can become involved in conflict situations, such as the air transport of conventional weapons, the private security industry or the relationship between the exploitation of natural resources and conflict. They also considered the existing codes of conduct of private security companies and the instruments of the so-called 'soft law'.

The contents of the seminar "Companies in Conflict Situations" will be published in the near future in a report by the professor and co-organizer of the conference, Maria Prandi.