In a striking appeal rooted in the principle of equal application of international law, a regional legal voice has issued a formal call to Caribbean legal institutions, jurists, and legal professionals across the region to launch a civil legal inquiry into the deaths of more than 100 unarmed Caribbean and Latin American fishermen killed by United States military strikes between 2025 and 2026.
The appeal, addressed to the Caribbean Bar Associations, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Bar, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), CARICOM jurists and regional attorneys, anchors its argument in the very legal precedent the U.S. recently relied on to indict former Cuban President Raúl Castro for the downing of two unarmed civilian aircraft. The U.S. indictment rests on the core international law principle that state officials can be held personally legally accountable for the unlawful killing of civilians outside the context of active armed conflict. If this principle holds for one nation, the appeal argues, it must apply uniformly to all global actors.
According to the appeal, credible documentation from the United Nations and leading international human rights organizations confirms that over 100 unarmed fishermen, none of whom were combatants, armed, or involved in any hostilities, were killed in U.S. military strikes carried out in international waters. In at least one documented case, the strike occurred within the territorial waters of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a sovereign CARICOM member state.
Under widely accepted international law, customary legal norms, and the long-standing framework of the UN Charter originating from the League of Nations, the intentional killing of unarmed civilians outside armed conflict carries severe legal ramifications: the deaths qualify as extrajudicial killing in violation of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a breach of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a violation of peremptory (jus cogens) international norms, and could constitute a crime against humanity if proven to be part of a systematic pattern of violence. The strikes also violate the binding duty of CARICOM states to protect their own citizens, the appeal notes.
The text draws a direct parallel to the U.S. action against the former Cuban leader: if the United States claims legal jurisdiction to indict a foreign sitting or former official for civilian deaths in disputed airspace, Caribbean regional legal institutions hold equal legal standing to investigate and pursue accountability for civilian deaths that occurred within the region’s own maritime boundaries.
In response to this precedent, the appeal formally calls on Caribbean judicial associations, legal scholars, bar groups and practicing regional attorneys to pursue a non-governmental legal action before the CCJ or another competent regional legal body. The action is grounded in three well-established legal bases for jurisdiction: territorial jurisdiction, as some strikes took place within CARICOM territorial waters; nationality jurisdiction, as the victims included CARICOM nationals; and universal jurisdiction, which applies to the gravest violations of international human rights law.
The appeal emphasizes that this initiative is not an act of political opposition. Instead, it frames the effort as a binding legal and moral obligation that grows directly from the same principle the United States itself has invoked to justify its own legal action.
Closing the statement, the appeal reaffirms three core commitments: Caribbean lives carry equal weight under international law, Caribbean sovereignty must be respected under international law, and international law must either be applied equally to all nations, or it effectively applies to none. The call ends with an invitation for all Caribbean legal professionals, scholars, and institutions to join the effort to explore this legal action and map out the appropriate next steps for the process.