Are mercenaries legal?

No, mercenaries are illegal. A mercenary is any person that has been professionally trained and recruited locally or aboard to fight in an armed conflict, for personal interest and not political interest.

On 4 December 1989, the international convention has legally forbidden the recruitment, financing, use, and training of mercenaries. After the confirmation that they use, training, financing, and recruitment of mercenaries was an offense of grave concern to all states that anyone caught committing this offense will be extradited or prosecuted.

However, it was only 35 countries that ratified the convention, and it entered into force on October 20, 2001. But some countries did not ratify because of their large military group. Lastly, Mercenaries are also recognized as illegitimate combatants, who do not have any legal protection when compared to captured service personnel of a regular army.

The correct answer to this question is no. Mercenaries have been illegal since 1989. Despite laws being put in place to make them illegal, many people would argue that there are mercenaries that are still around today. These groups are not called mercenaries but are called private military contracts. They go by this title so that they would not fall under breaking the law for having a mercenary group. However, they fall under the umbrella of mercenaries because they recruit members, and they pay those members to be in the group. They also have the same goes that mercenaries have.

It is already not legal to look for and to recruit mercenaries by the year 1989. This means that people are not allowed to recruit, use, and finance mercenaries. If you are not familiar with what a mercenary is, remember that this is a person who has been specifically recruited. This may be someone who comes from a local place. This may also be a person who may come from another country. This will make sure that mercenaries will be able to fight for the group. There are no more mercenaries in the world right now ever since it was banned although some say that there may be some secret mercenaries that may still be happening in some parts of the world.