The United Nations stated Friday that U.S. airstrikes on alleged drug trafficking boats within the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean violate worldwide human rights regulation and should cease.
In a press release to ABC Information, the U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated that the assaults breach worldwide regulation and known as for an investigation into the strikes.
“These assaults – and their mounting human price – are unacceptable. The U.S. should halt such assaults and take all measures needed to stop the extrajudicial killing of individuals aboard these boats, regardless of the legal conduct alleged in opposition to them,” Türk stated.
“Underneath worldwide human rights regulation, the intentional use of deadly power is simply permissible as a final resort in opposition to people who pose an imminent risk to life,” he added. “Primarily based on the very sparse data offered publicly by the U.S. authorities, not one of the people on the focused boats appeared to pose an imminent risk to the lives of others or in any other case justified the usage of deadly armed power in opposition to them below worldwide regulation.”
The U.S. has carried out one other strike in opposition to an alleged drug vessel within the Japanese Pacific, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced Oct. 29, 2025, killing 4 individuals.
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White Home deputy press secretary Anna Kelly instructed ABC Information that President Donald Trump is working to get rid of threats to U.S. safety.
“The UN has failed at all the things from working an escalator to ending wars — it’s ridiculous that they’re now lecturing President Trump and operating cowl for evil narcoterrorists attempting to homicide People. The President acted in keeping with the legal guidelines of armed battle to guard our nation from these attempting to deliver poison to our shores, and he’s delivering on his promise to tackle the cartels and get rid of these nationwide safety threats from destroying lives,” Kelly stated.
Since September, President Donald Trump and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth have executed over a dozen military strikes in opposition to boats within the Caribbean and Japanese Pacific, arguing they’re anti-drug and counter-terrorism measures.
Over 60 individuals have allegedly been killed within the strikes, in keeping with U.S. officers.
In asserting the newest and most threatening strike Wednesday, Hegseth said the U.S. “carried out a deadly kinetic strike on yet one more narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Group within the Japanese Pacific.”
“This vessel, like all of the others, was recognized by our intelligence to be concerned in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting alongside a recognized narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” he added.
That is the primary time the U.N. has condemned the strikes.
“The US ought to examine and, if needed, prosecute and punish people accused of great crimes in accordance with the basic rule of regulation rules of due course of and truthful trial, for which the U.S. has lengthy stood,” a press release from his workplace reads.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for Türk, mirrored this sentiment at a Friday U.N. briefing.
“These assaults and their mounting human price are unacceptable. The U.S. should halt such assaults and take all measures needed to stop the extrajudicial killing of individuals aboard these boats,” she stated.
