Accountability for Human Rights Violations committed in the name of the “War on Drugs”

A Side Event to the 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council

• Date & Time: Tuesday 30 September 2025 / 16:00 – 17:00 CET
• Venue: Concordia I, Palais des Nations, United Nations, Geneva
• Live streaming on Facebook: https://fb.me/e/5c2o9MRcl
• Organised by: No Peace Without Justice

The global push to combat narcotics has become a pretext for systematic human rights violations and state violence, including extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity. This side event examines accountability mechanisms by linking the ongoing ICC prosecution of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte with recent U.S. military strikes on ostensibly civilian vessels in the Caribbean, exploring how international law can protect both direct victims and populations “in whose name” such violence occurs.
The Philippines case provides critical precedent: Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign resulted in thousands of deaths, widespread intimidation, and deliberate erosion of democratic institutions. On 12 March 2025, Duterte was surrendered to the ICC by virtue of an ICC arrest warrant for the crime against humanity of murder under Article 7(1)(a) of the Rome Statute—marking historic progress toward accountability for state-sponsored extrajudicial killings. Victims continue to seek justice at the ICC, highlighting challenges and possibilities of victim-centered accountability.
Contemporary Caribbean developments demonstrate pattern evolution: U.S. military forces struck four ostensibly civilian vessels in international waters in September 2025, killing at least 19 individuals. Regional leaders’ endorsement—Trinidad and Tobago’s PM praising the strikes, Dominican Republic describing “first-of-its-kind joint operation against narco-terrorism”—reveals how anti-drug rhetoric facilitates regional complicity in unlawful state violence. UN Special Rapporteurs and human rights organizations condemned these as extrajudicial killings violating international law.
A proposed U.S. Authorization for Use of Military Force aimed at “narco-terrorists” could grant authority for counter-narcotics military operations across 60+ countries, systematizing cross-border interventions and creating templates for authoritarian consolidation. Such operations serve dual purposes: generating popular support while intimidating opponents and normalizing state violence. Populations “in whose name” violence occurs—including the American public—constitute critical victim groups, highlighting transnational implications requiring robust international accountability.

Core Objectives:
– Examine accountability processes for human rights violations committed in anti-drug contexts, including ICC confirmation under Article 61 and complementarity principles
– Analyze contemporary operations within proposed legislative expansions that could systematize such operations globally
Explore victim-centered approaches for both directly targeted populations and those indirectly affected “in whose name” violence is conducted
– Assess authoritarian consolidation patterns through anti-drug rhetoric and transnational “security cooperation”
– Identify concrete recommendations for States, international organizations, and civil society to strengthen accountability, prevent future violations, uphold rule of law

Concept note and program