UN chief supports views of US airstrikes in Caribbean, Pacific violating international humanitarian law

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports the views of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk that the US airstrikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific violate international human rights law, a UN spokesperson said.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN chief, said at a daily briefing that “none of the individuals on the targeted boats appear to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justify the use of lethal armed force against them under international law,” echoing Turk.

“We want to make sure that established law enforcement methods are used to deal with questions of illegal trafficking on the high seas,” the spokesperson said.

Turk said in a statement on October 31 that the United States “must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them.”

On Thursday, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said on X that US forces struck another alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, killing three people and bringing the total number of vessels destroyed to at least 18.

Earlier UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Turk had said in the statement that the United States must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them.

The statement said over 60 people have reportedly been killed in a continuing series of attacks carried out by US armed forces against boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since early September, in circumstances that find no justification in international law.

IANS