U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk addresses attendees on the activities of his Office and recent human rights developments around the globe, during the 60th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. (AP) The United Nations Human Rights chief on Friday condemned the US military airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean against boats allegedly carrying drugs, calling the attacks “unacceptable” and urging that they stop immediately.
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for an investigation into the strikes — the first such criticism from a UN body over the Trump administration’s anti-drug campaign.
“These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable,” UN human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva, quoting Türk. “The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”
Shamdasani said Türk believes the US airstrikes “violate international human rights law,” noting that the use of lethal force is only justified as a last resort against someone posing “an imminent threat to life.”
“Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right to life and constitute extrajudicial killings,” she said. The strikes, she added, were happening “outside the context of armed conflict or active hostilities.”
US President Donald Trump has defended the campaign as a necessary step to stop drugs from entering the United States. “We’re taking the fight to the traffickers before they reach our shores,” Trump said earlier this week.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that a recent strike in the eastern Pacific destroyed a vessel carrying drugs, killing four people on board. It was the 14th such strike since early September, bringing the total death toll to at least 61.
Shamdasani acknowledged the US claim that the campaign is part of anti-drug and counter-terrorism efforts, but said such operations must follow international rules. She stressed that drug trafficking should be addressed through law enforcement, not military action.
Countries, she said, have agreed that combating drug crime is a legal matter “governed by careful limits” on the use of lethal force.
(With inputs from AP)
