Human Rights Council calls on Venezuela to end repression

A group of 45 UN member countries called on Tuesday before the Human Rights Council that Venezuela “put an end to the wave of repression against political opponents and protesters” “which is escalating throughout the country” and unconditionally and immediately release those arbitrarily detained.

The signatories of the declaration, which was read before the UN Council by Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, also called on the Venezuelan authorities to fully respect “international standards on due process and conditions of detention.”

States supporting the declaration include Latin American nations such as Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay, along with EU member states such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Germany, as well as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada.

Mondino told the Council that the signatory countries wish to convey their deep concern about the structural human rights crisis that Venezuela is experiencing, which has been exacerbated this year in the context of the electoral process.

In the weeks since the July 28 election, the situation has worsened with “arbitrary arrests of opposition figures, journalists and protesters, including children, adolescents, women and people with disabilities,” the statement said.

There was also disproportionate use of force by security forces but also by groups of armed civilians known as “collectives,” as well as other abuses including “the judicial persecution initiated by the Venezuelan State against presidential candidate Edmundo González,” exiled in Spain.

“Under the pretext of inciting hatred or under anti-terrorist legislation, people seeking to exercise their political rights and their legitimate right to peaceful protest are persecuted, arrested and deprived of their liberty,” the statement said.

It also regrets the decision of the Venezuelan authorities to suspend cooperation with the UN Office for Human Rights (which resulted in the expulsion of its Venezuelan workers from the country in February) and is calling for this relationship to be resumed.

The UN also requests that the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, responsible for investigating human rights abuses in the country, be allowed to enter Venezuela and will present its most recent report on the matter to the same UN Council on 19 September.