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26Peace Operations Association (IPOA). The IPOA’s mission is to raise the standards ofthe ‘peace and stability operations industry’ and its code of conduct covers humanrights, transparency, accountability, clients, safety, personnel, insurance, control,ethics, rules for the use of force, support for international organisations, arms control,partner companies, application and enforcement. 86 IPOA provides staunch support forthe PMC industry and represents a broad membership of mainly US PMC. Yet, evenin its infancy, the association has had to publicly distance itself from the problematicreputations of companies such as Blackwater. Blackwater has, in turn, sought torebrand itself with the new corporate name of ‘Xe’ (pronounced ‘zee’). 87 The Britishequivalent of IPOA, the British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC),was formed in 2006 and aims to promote and regulate UK firms that ‘provide armeddefensive security services’. 88 Australia has no counterpart association, although someAustralian PMC are members of IPOA and maintain links with BAPSC.Laws of Armed ConflictThe Laws of Armed Conflict, including the Geneva Conventions, were generally silenton issues of mercenarism until the adoption of the Additional Protocols to the GenevaConventions in 1977. One early exception, however, covered the violation of theprinciple of neutrality, as defined in Article 4 of the 1907 Hague V Convention, by theactive recruitment of mercenaries. 89 Another exception arose in the Security Councilresolution to remove all mercenaries from the Congo in 1961, including the UN troopsdeployed against ‘les affreux’. The UN General Assembly also resolved to condemn the86 See International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) website: .87 D Hedgpeth, ‘Blackwater sheds name, shifts focus’, The Washington Post, 14 February 2009,accessed 5 January 2010..88 See British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC) website: accessed 5 January 2010..89 H McCoubrey and N D White, International Law and Armed Conflict, Dartmouth, Aldershot,England, 1992, p. 300; see ‘Convention Respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers andPersons in the Case of War on Land’, Hague, 18 October 1907, International Law Concerning theConflict of Hostilities: Collection of Hague Conventions and Some Other Treaties, InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Geneva, Switzerland, 1992, pp. 143–48.