GENEVA (AP) — On Friday, the United Nations’ top human rights official criticized U.S. military operations targeting boats suspected of transporting illegal drugs from South America in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, labeling them as “unacceptable” and urging an immediate cessation.

Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for a thorough investigation into these military actions, marking a significant stance by a United Nations body against such activities for the first time.

During a routine U.N. briefing, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for Türk’s office, conveyed his position: “The increasing human toll from these attacks is intolerable. The United States must cease these assaults and ensure measures are in place to prevent the extrajudicial killing of individuals on these vessels.”

Türk asserts that “airstrikes by the United States on boats in both the Caribbean and the Pacific breach international human rights law.”

These actions have been defended by President Donald Trump as necessary measures to curb the drug flow into the United States. However, the strategy against drug cartels has sparked division among countries in the region.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the latest U.S. military strike in the campaign, against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people aboard were killed. It was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61.

Shamdasani noted the U.S. explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug and counter-terrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.

Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life,” she said. “Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right of life and constitute extrajudicial killings.”

The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, Shamdasani said.