on the eve and with the occasion of International Human Rights Day. 

9:00 Washington D.C. / 11:00 São Paulo
15:00 Ginebra / 21:00 Bangkok

Organised by Amnesty International, Conectas Brazil, the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)

The concept of ‘Narcoterrorism’ was coined in the 1980s and has long been associated with extreme responses to drugs. In recent months, the term has regained prominence amongst governments in the Americas, raising concerns about a resurgence of ‘war-on-drugs’ policies that have proven both ineffective and deeply damaging for human rights.

The most notable case has been that of the United States. Upon taking office, the Trump Administration 

 several trafficking organisations as terrorist groups. Since September 2025, it has initiated a campaign of military strikes against civilian vessels in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, alleging their involvement in drug trafficking activities. In scarcely two months, this has resulted in more than 80 people killed (see WOLA tracker 

 serious concerns that these attacks may constitute violations of international law and potentially amount to international crimes, whilst the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has 

 for prompt, independent, and transparent investigations. Some Member States have also expressed concern at potential violations of international law.

The renewed invocation of ‘narcoterrorism’ is not unique to the USA. Throughout the Americas, elected officials have employed this label to declare states of emergencies and to justify the use of military and paramilitary forces, often resulting in extrajudicial killings. This is despite clear evidence that conflating drug trafficking and terrorist groups is factually inaccurate, and can lead to misguided and harmful responses.

This online event, convened to mark the 2025 International Human Rights Day, will examine contemporary uses of the narcoterrorism narrative and explore how the international community can respond to this troubling development to safeguard the integrity of international human rights law, with particular attention to mechanisms for investigation and accountability. 

- UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights

 - Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)

, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)

The ‘narcoterrorism’ threat: Exploring avenues to uphold human rights amidst a new 'war on drugs'

With these attacks, Mr. Trump has ordered the summary execution of people who are not at war with the United States in any traditional sense of the term and who may not even have been committing the crime of which he accused them. It is a violation of legal due process that should alarm all Americans. It is even more extreme than his policy of sending migrants to a brutal prison in El Salvador, based on questionable claims that they belonged to Tren de Aragua and without any chance to contest the government’s claims. The United States, created in opposition to monarchy, should never become a country where the president can order the indefinite imprisonment or the unilateral killing of people merely because he has deemed them to be criminals.

America is blowing up boats and asking questions later

 – UN experts* today condemned the extrajudicial execution by the United States of 11 people when it sank a civilian vessel in the Caribbean Sea on 2 September 2025, and three people on another vessel on 15 September.

“International law does not allow governments to simply murder alleged drug traffickers,” the experts said. “Criminal activities should be disrupted, investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the rule of law, including through international cooperation.”

On 2 September 2025, the President of the United States announced a “kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists” aboard a vessel in international waters, allegedly transporting illegal narcotics to the U.S., killing 11 people. The Secretary of State of the United States indicated the U.S. could have intercepted the vessel but chose to destroy it to deter traffickers. The U.S. had previously designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organisation.

“Under international law, all countries must respect the right to life, including when acting on the high seas or in foreign territory. The use of potentially lethal force is only permitted in personal self-defence or defence of others against an imminent threat to life,” the experts said.

“The United States’ attack also violates the international law of the sea, which does not authorise unprovoked attacks on ships, requires criteria to be met to intercept ships, and insists on a law enforcement, not military approach to using force,” they said.

The United States has previously accused Tren de Aragua of mounting an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” of the U.S., at the behest of the Venezuelan Government. “There is no evidence that this group is committing an armed attack against the U.S. that would allow the U.S. to use military force against it in national self-defence,” the experts said.

The strike follows a classified order reportedly signed by the U.S. President in August 2025 authorising military force, in foreign territory or international waters, against Latin American drug cartels that the U.S. Government recently designated as terrorist organisations. These include groups based in Latin America, including in Mexico and Venezuela.

“International law does not permit the unilateral use of force abroad to fight terrorism or drug trafficking. Attacks on organised crime groups in foreign territory would violate the other country’s sovereignty and could amount to an illegal use of force under the United Nations Charter and customary international law,” the experts said.

The United States has reportedly deployed substantial naval, air and land forces in the region for the purpose of deterring drug trafficking and “narco-terrorism”.

On 25 July 2025, the U.S. designated Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist group and alleged that the Venezuelan President is its leader, raising the prospect that the U.S. may use military force directly against a foreign government.

We urge the United States to retreat from its lawless “war on narco-terrorism”. Under international law, the U.S. must independently investigate those who ordered and carried out these murders, prosecute perpetrators, no matter how senior in government, provide reparation to the victims’ families, and guarantee that such acts will never occur again,” the experts said.

The experts have been in contact with the Governments concerned regarding these matters.

Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism

Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

Independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order

US war on 'narco-terrorists' violates the right to life, warn UN experts after deadly vessel strike

In Golba Hill on the Caribbean island of 

 (SVG), just below a cluster of colourfully decorated homes, there are rows and rows of premium marijuana plants. Gleaming like green gold in the Caribbean sun, they lead up to a crudely constructed hut where cannabis farmer Bobbis Matthews spends most of his time nurturing and protecting his precious field.

As he did his routine inspection, removing male plants that could diminish the potency of his crop, Matthews recalled a time, not too long ago, when the idea of a cannabis farm in a residential area was unthinkable.

Like many of SVG’s cannabis farmers, Matthews is a Rastafarian who spent years hiding illegal cannabis fields deep in the mountains and living in fear of US-backed antinarcotics operations that would destroy millions of dollars worth of the plant.

“It was hard! At least three times a year, US helicopters would come and tear down the crop. In those days, it felt like you couldn’t even say the word marijuana because just to say marijuana, you could get arrested,” Matthews said.

The Rastafarians opening up Caribbean cannabis farms to build a flourishing medical industry

The Latin American Network of People who Use Drugs (LANPUD) and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) welcome the opportunity to submit a report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) on the occasion of the Honduras periodic review.

This report presents the information available to the undersigned organizations regarding economic, social and cultural rights, especially the right to physical and mental health of people who use drugs in Honduras. The document is divided into the following topics:

Health situation of people who use drugs in Honduras.

Impact of criminalization and stigma towards people who use drugs in Honduras.

Prevention, treatment and harm reduction services for people who use drug.

Recommendations for the CESCR report on Honduras.

Communication to the UN CESCR regarding Honduras periodic review on the right to health of people who use drugs

The Government of Saint Lucia, through the Ministry of Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs, has been engaged in the revision and development of policy, legislation and a regulatory framework for cannabis in Saint Lucia.

In keeping with these advancements, the Government of Saint Lucia will be hosting a two-day Cannabis Symposium from March 19 – March 20, 2024 as an open-ended regional policy discussion on matters relating to cannabis.

This symposium will afford relevant stakeholders and Cannabis Authorities within the region an opportunity to hold candid discussions on some of the issues and challenges experienced throughout the region.

Subsequently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be signed by the aforementioned parties, guided by a common interest to establish and maintain robust, inclusive and safe regimes surrounding cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, sale and use in the individual states of the region.

This MOU will, in effect, establish the Caribbean Cannabis Forum—a mechanism to encourage and host joint discussions on national, regional or international cannabis matters of relevance to the Caribbean region.

Saint Lucia to host Caribbean Cannabis Symposium

This issue of Caribbean Quarterly interrogates the Caribbean cannabis landscape from a range of perspectives, addressing issues such as the socio-cultural significance of the plant and its uses, regulatory challenges and opportunities, reparatory measures for Rastafarian communities and enduring limitations in research.

From Hand Measures to Gram Weights, Ganja Becomes More Precise

Distorted Directions in Cannabis in the Commonwealth Caribbean - Did We Exhale?

The Methodology of Initiation Fifteen Years Later

Creating Cannabis Identity through Cannabis Use

The Contribution of Traditional Farmers to Cannabis Reform in St Vincent and the Grenadines

Lessons in Developing a Formal Cannabis Sector and Culture in the Caribbean

The Art of Cannabis Advocacy in Reggae Music

Ganjapreneurship, Hypocrisy and the Jamaican Nation State

Towards Purpose-driven and Responsive Laws to Regulate Jamaica's Cannabis Industry

A Cultural Beacon Pioneering Jamaica's Cannabis Events' Space

And a number of poems and book reviews are available 

New approaches to cannabis culture

 by the people of Jamaica, particularly traditional ganja farmers. The amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act meant that a local market remains prohibited, with only possession decriminalised.

Due to Jamaica’s reliance on international order, the CLA has struggled to take further action, creating tension with traditional farmers in Jamaica who have grown frustrated at the lack of a legal market to sell their product. Canadian cannabis companies are now 

exporting cannabis back into Jamaica and undercutting the local market.

 Due to economic and legal restrictions faced by local farmers in Jamaica, they cannot export their own product into Canada. Therefore, the legal market is inaccessible, forcing Jamaicans to rely on the illicit cannabis trade, perpetuating the criminal divide between those that can afford to access the legal market, and those that cannot.

Western policies dictating international regulations are not new within the Americas and the Caribbean. When policy is implemented without addressing this history, Western interests tend to dominate. As Vicki Hanson, a member of the 

changes were first introduced and established on premises of discrimination and prejudice toward certain culture and people on a colonial basis.”

And so, how do we go about breaking this cycle? The move towards legalisation may seem ideal, but in practice legal reform risks perpetuating racial capitalism and inequalities created by the global economy rather 

than strengthening the advancement of reparative racial justice.

 Within Jamaica, the government has attempted to widen the market for the inclusion of tradition farmers. This includes 

 and eased security requirements needed for legal cultivations.

2020 review of the International Drug Treaty,

 Jamaica openly advocated for further cannabis reform, stating: 

“the current international drug control architecture does not allow to address national realities and unique circumstances, but it is also at the core of discussions on criminal justice reforms and human rights, in particular freedom of religion is here.”

 However, this alone is not enough, as policies introduced for drug reform must construct a new world rather than solely address the damage created by the current one. Unless reparative justice is at the core of drug policy, we risk advancing racial disparity instead of counteracting it.

We must also question why Western drug policies, which are not fit for purpose for countries with traditional or indigenous use of controlled drugs, are enforced upon communities with long-standing connections with cannabis. Take for example, profitable Western security measures, such as the required implementation of 

 are consistently prioritised over factors more beneficial to local farmers, such as the importance of community cohesion and geographical location. Why is cannabis policy measured on the “global politics of ganja”, when those who view the drug as a traditional sacrament to their beliefs are given no voice?

To move forward in a manner that challenges these racial hierarchies, we must rethink how to implement drug policy: transitioning from if to how. We must make an active effort to correct the historical wrongs perpetuated by the War on Drugs, understanding the 

 that the global drugs industry has brought together, and the laws and policies that have kept this in place.

Jamaican cannabis struggles to integrate traditional growers

In recent years, more than a dozen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have promoted some form of regulation of the medicinal use of cannabis, following the worldwide trend of relaxing the prohibition of the plant.

Such regulations are at different stages of development and have distinct characteristics, but they are similar in their pro-profit commercial orientation, which has stimulated the structuring of a regional production and consumption chain connected to the international dynamics of this new market. According to some reports, in 2020 the global medical cannabis market was worth US$9 billion and could reach US$49 billion by 2028, with an annual growth of 24%. The Latin American medicinal cannabis market is predicted to follow the same trajectory. It is estimated that this market represented US$1.2 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach US$3.75 billion in 2027, based on the same global annual growth rate.

A growing number of transnational corporations (TNCs), especially from Canada and the US, view this new Latin American regional market as a great business opportunity. Low taxes, unprotective and undemanding labour laws, low labour costs, a favourable climate for growing cannabis, affordable land, infrastructure and inputs for the cultivation and manufacture of cannabis products have all attracted this corporate interest. Several of these corporations have made direct investments in countries across the LAC region, establishing partnerships of different types with local companies in order to obtain commercial advantages for growing cannabis at low cost to manufacture their products either for export or for expanding their consumer market.

This new context of regulations on cannabis for medicinal purposes in Latin America could be a driving force for social justice. It could guarantee a therapeutic alternative for various medical conditions, reflecting scientific research and the positive experience of patients who have used cannabis-derived products for years, particularly CBD-rich oils. It could also be an opportunity to invest in repairing some of the social harms imposed by the long period of prohibition, which focused on the repression of vulnerable social groups involved in the production, commercialisation and consumption of cannabis, and led to incarceration, exclusion, deepening inequalities, corruption, and the like.

Corporate capture of the Latin American medical cannabis market

Bermuda is on the brink of a constitutional crisis after Britain blocked the Government’s flagship legislation to legalise the use and consumption of cannabis.

In a landmark move, Rena Lalgie, the Governor, said she had been “instructed” by the UK’s foreign secretary to refuse to give royal assent to the Progressive Labour Party’s Cannabis Licensing Bill.

Ms Lalgie previously reserved assent on the legislation in May and called for dialogue between Hamilton and London on the matter.

David Burt, the Premier, said last year that if royal assent was not given to the Bill it would “destroy” relations between Bermuda and Britain.

Following months of tension over the legislation, Ms Lalgie announced the decision on the day Liz Truss was elevated from foreign secretary to prime minister.

The Government insisted it would push on with its initiative as voters had given the PLP a mandate to do so.

Kathy Lynn Simmons, the Attorney General, appeared to put the Government on a collision course with London over the issue.

She said: “Disappointing, but not surprising, given the confines of our constitutional relationship with the UK government and their archaic interpretation of the narcotic conventions.

“The people of Bermuda have democratically expressed their desire for a regulated cannabis licensing regime, following the strong endorsement at the ballot box and an extensive public consultation process.

Bermuda: Crisis looms as Britain blocks cannabis legalisation

December 10-12, 2021, Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

The Caribbean region’s Informal Drug Policy Dialogue that was held in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), in December 2021, at the initiative of Transnational Institute (TNI) in close collaboration with the Medicinal Cannabis Authority (MCA) of SVG highlighted several challenges to the establishment of a legal medical cannabis industry currently being faced by countries in the region. These issues include international banking restrictions; access to laboratory, research and testing facilities; complying with EU GACP and GMP to meet the standards for exports, the Seed-to-Sale System; securing access for patients and getting doctors to prescribe; the structure of the licensing system; guarantees for the Rastafari community for ceremonial ganja usage, and most importantly, how to envisage traditional cultivators inclusion in the regulatory framework and practice being developed. Around the table seven (7) countries were represented from the region: Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, St Lucia and of course St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Report on the Caribbean informal drug policy dialogue on the future of cannabis

The 2022 National Harm Reduction Conference comes at a time when harm reduction, health care, and drug policy reform have entered a dynamic and critical phase. The prescription opioid and heroin overdose epidemic has captured national attention, with renewed focus on transmission of HIV and viral hepatitis among people who use drugs. These trends are reshaping the policy and public health landscapes, making harm reduction more urgent and relevant than ever before.

The biennial event is the only conference of its kind in the United States. For four days, some of the most creative minds from the U.S. and abroad come together to address a myriad of complex issues facing the harm reduction movement. A diverse community of people who use drugs, social justice activists, service providers, healthcare workers, researchers, policymakers, public health officials, and law enforcement— all coming together to put an end to the harms and injustices caused by the War on Drugs.

Providing safe spaces for the exchange of ideas and cutting-edge practices that reduce harms associated with drug use

Creating networking opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds committed to dismantling the racialized policies that underwrite and perpetuate oppression

Challenging stigmatizing narratives about people who use drugs by supporting their leadership development and exposing social inequities driven by structural violence and discrimination

In addition to workshops, roundtable discussions, plenaries, poster presentations, and an exhibit hall, other conference highlights include:

The Imani P. Woods Award for Excellence in Harm Reduction Activism

Wellness Space (yoga, mindfulness, meditation, affinity group meetings, and more)

The National Harm Reduction Conference registration will start at 9:00am, Thursday October 13th with the Opening Session starting promptly at 10:00am. The Closing Session will begin at 11:00am on Sunday, October 16th and end at 1:00pm.

All event times use Puerto Rico local time (GMT-4).