High Commissioner for Human Rights: US strikes on alleged drug boats “unacceptable”

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Friday that U.S. military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific allegedly carrying illicit drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to represent the first such condemnation from a UN organisation.

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Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for Türk’s office, relayed his message on Friday at a regular UN news conference: “These attacks and their mounting human costs are unacceptable. The United States must stop such attacks and take all necessary measures to prevent the extrajudicial killing of the people on board these boats.”

She said that Türk believes that “the air strikes launched by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific violate international human rights law.”

President Donald Trump has justified the attacks on the boats as a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs into the United States, but the campaign against drug cartels has been divisive among countries in the region.

On Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the latest US military strike in the campaign against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people on board were killed. This was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll rose to at least 61.

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Shamdasani noted U.S. interpretations of the effort as an anti-drug and anti-terrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that combating illicit drug trafficking is a law enforcement matter governed by “precise limits” on the use of lethal force.

She added that the intentional use of deadly force is only permitted as a last resort against someone who poses an “imminent threat to life.” “Otherwise, this would amount to a violation of the right to life and constitute extrajudicial killings.”

Shamdasani said the strikes were being carried out “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities.