What human rights issues arise from the use of private corporations as contractors of the coalition?

Doing a google search of the research question brings up some very relevant sources.

"The exposure of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Iraq put into sharp relief the moral hazards of a war on terrorism. The question was thus posed: when a state is faced with its own vulnerability in the aftermath of an attack, how will the rule of law survive? Perhaps unsurprisingly, clever litigators have responded to the Abu Ghraib debacle by seeking novel theories of tort liability. Their goal of prosecuting perpetrators of torture is a challenging one. Numerous obstacles stand in their way, not least sovereign immunity and the immunity of coalition forces in Iraq from local jurisdiction. (1)

But an Achilles heel in the U.S. Government's immunity is the rising use of private military firms (PMFs) (2) in capacities traditionally reserved for government agents. Along with the military and civilian government personnel at Abu Ghraib were numerous private employees of the independent contractors CACI International, Inc., and Titan Corporation. (3) These employees operated interchangeably with their government counterparts as interrogators and translators, and are thus implicated in the abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib. (4) Yet, they are not clothed with the immunity of a state actor, as they are employees of an independent contractor and not the government. (5) Encouraged by recent successful suits against corporations for violations of the law of nations, (6) human rights activists have filed Alien Tort Statute (ATS) claims against CACI and Titan in federal court claiming, inter alia, torture, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. (7) We are thus faced with a dual proxy: the ATS acts as a proxy in American courts for international criminal law, and the PMFs act as a proxy for the U.S. Government. "
Garfield, A (2006) 'Bridging a gap in human rights law: prisoner of war abuse as "war tort".' Georgetown Journal of International Law, Georgetown, 22 June 2006
link

"Iraqi officials accuse many of the companies providing protection in violence-plagued Iraq of being a law unto themselves, prompting a flurry of attempts to better regulate an industry that is expanding rapidly around the world. South Africa and Britain are proposing tough new laws governing the participation of their nationals in foreign conflicts. Humanitarian groups are trying to identify gaps in international law. And the industry itself is pushing greater self-regulation."

Zavis, A (2006) 'Iraq Struggles With Rise of Guns-For-Hire' Baghdad, Associated Press, May 7, 2006 link


'With almost no congressional oversight and even less public awareness, the Bush administration has more than doubled the size of the U.S. occupation through the use of private war companies.

There are now almost 200,000 private "contractors" deployed in Iraq by Washington. This means that U.S. military forces in Iraq are now outsized by a coalition of billing corporations whose actions go largely unmonitored and whose crimes are virtually unpunished.'
Scahill, J (2007) 'The Mercenary Revolution', The Independent, London, August 10, 2007 link

"One of the main tools for ‘socializing’ private military contractors (PMCs) is litigation. The threat of litigation may encourage contractors to set up their own corporate social responsibility and accountability mechanisms with a view to preventing them being hauled before courts. The article identifies the jurisdictional opportunities and pitfalls of criminal (public law) and civil/tort (private law) litigation against PMCs in domestic courts. The focus lies on litigation for human rights abuses, with special emphasis on US proceedings, the US being the home and hiring state of the majority of PMCs active in overseas conflict zones. It is argued that, because the chances of success of tort litigation are, in fact, rather limited in the US, given the many procedural obstacles, the criminal law avenue may prove to be more promising, if at least prosecutors show more leadership in bringing cases. Also at a deeper accountability level, criminal litigation may be preferable on the ground that criminal punishment sends a stronger accountability and deterrence signal than a mere money judgment."
Ryngaert, C (2008) 'Litigating Abuses Committed by Private Military Companies', Oxford,The European Journal of International Law Vol. 19 no. 5, p1035 link

Non-State Actors and Human Rights Edited by PHILIP ALSTON Academy of European Law
European University Institute in collaboration with the Center for Human
Alston, P (2005) 'Non-state actors and human rights', Paris, Academy of European Law

ACLU details of all tortured to death in US custody.
Details #

Outsourcing war.
Good well cited journal article about outsourcing of war and its history.
Shearer, D (1999) 'Outsourcing war', Foreign Policy, No. 112, Autumn, pp. 68-81 link