States urged to tackle drug crime without abusive counterterrorism measures

The growing use of terrorist labels has encouraged more security-focused responses, a trend the report also identified in the “Shield of the Americas” initiative involving 19 states.

Governments should stop misusing terrorist designations against drug cartels and gangs and avoid a new "war on narco-terrorism" that violates human rights, UN Special Rapporteur Ben Saul said in a report calling for a different response to organised crime and drug misuse.

Saul, whose mandate covers human rights in counter-terrorism, recognised that organised drug violence and drug misuse threaten life, personal security and health, stressing that states must take all lawful measures to address those dangers through legal frameworks suited to the harms involved.

His report warned that treating profit-driven criminal groups as terrorist organisations has expanded exceptional powers and military operations, exposing people to unlawful killings, detention and restrictions on basic freedoms without resolving the conditions that sustain drug trafficking.

Criminal violence requires a different legal response

Organised crime can spread fear and pressure governments, but those similarities to terrorism do not justify treating the two as interchangeable, Saul said, explaining that international standards should reserve terrorism classifications for political or ideological violence and exclude profit-motivated organised crime.

The growing use of terrorist labels has encouraged more security-focused responses, a trend the report also identified in the "Shield of the Americas" initiative involving 19 states.

Unjustified designations can trigger asset freezes, travel bans, summary deportations and returns to countries where people face serious harm, with broadly drawn terrorist financing and material support offences also putting migrants, humanitarian workers, businesses, civil society and vulnerable communities at risk.

Military operations and emergency powers threaten rights

Saul said militarised campaigns against so-called narco-terrorism have involved arbitrary killings, torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention, with prolonged states of emergency restricting movement, association, expression and peaceful assembly, as well as the rights of Indigenous communities.

According to the report, the United States reportedly unlawfully killed at least 239 people in 71 military attacks on civilian vessels at sea over the past year, with the operations allegedly conducted to prevent narco-terrorism.

Saul described the killings as murders that may constitute crimes against humanity and called for those responsible to be held accountable, also raising concerns about aggressive military force used or threatened against countries.

The expert said states had abused emergency powers and authorised lethal military force in circumstances where international humanitarian law does not permit it, adding that decades of heavily securitised responses in the Americas have frequently failed to reduce trafficking and have often increased violence.

Crime prevention and public health need greater attention

Saul urged governments to strengthen organised crime laws, policing and intelligence capabilities, financial investigations, anti-corruption efforts and international cooperation, supported by tighter controls on military-grade firearms.

Reducing recruitment and support for criminal groups requires action on the conditions that make them attractive or difficult to resist, including poverty reduction, development, reliable public services and governments that respond more effectively to people's needs.

The report also called for a change in drug policy, with Saul arguing that decades of suppression have failed to curb an illicit market that now contains more drugs than ever. He urged states to reduce demand through stronger prevention, education and public health measures, alongside harm reduction strategies and drug legalisation intended to weaken the criminal profits that sustain trafficking networks.