UN rapporteur labels US maritime drug strikes potential crimes against humanity
LawComments
If the Philippines largely ignored those findings, the US might view this report as a similar diplomatic gesture. It raises the question of whether such labels have any teeth when the accused state is a superpower.
But maybe that's the point... if the current laws are too vague, this could be the catalyst for a new global maritime treaty... that would be a huge win for transparency...
I wonder if the 230 death toll includes indirect casualties or only those killed during the strikes. A clearer breakdown of these numbers would provide better context for the scale of the force used.
Look at this in the context of the pending ICC sanctions. This is a direct collision course between US security policy and the international legal order.
This feels like a rerun of the UN's reaction to the Philippine drug war. The strategy of rebranding targets as criminals to evade the laws of war is an old trick.
The rapporteur is likely focusing on the systematic nature of the attacks. In international law, moving from a human rights violation to a crime against humanity requires proving a state policy, not just individual errors.
did the philippines actually change their tactics after the un report?
The comparison to the Philippines is flawed. Urban police actions and high seas interdictions operate under entirely different legal frameworks regarding jurisdiction and sovereignty.