Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said that US strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific may amount to crimes against humanity.
In a report published on September 15 on the website of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Saul said there were "compelling grounds" to believe that 68 documented attacks resulted in the deaths of 223 people and that the actions fell within the category of murder under customary international law.
The rapporteur rejected the argument that the strikes could be justified by the United States' right to self-defense. He defines them as extrajudicial killings.
According to the report, even if the victims on board were associated with criminal groups that Washington defines as terrorist, this is not a basis for invoking self-defense, since the organizations did not carry out an armed attack against the United States.
The US military has been striking ships in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific since the fall of 2025 as part of an operation against drug trafficking to the United States. The operation, called “Southern Spear“, according to US media, has not achieved the desired result.
Sources: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Reuters, BBC