NGOs call for renewal of UN mission on human rights in Venezuela

The Human Rights Council of the UN “must renew” the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which is investigating possible human rights violations in the country, 29 national and international organizations said on Monday.

In a statement, the NGOs said the mission “can play a key role in accountability and maintaining international scrutiny amid widespread repression” following the July 28 presidential election, even though the group does not operate on the ground but from outside the country.

Post-election repression

In the days following the elections, national protests broke out against the official result, which gave victory to Nicolás Maduro and which the opposition describes as fraudulent, an assertion that the anti-Chavez movement supports with 83.5% of the electoral records that it claims to have collected through witnesses and table members, and which it then posted on a website.

According to the government, which insists on Maduro’s victory, the records presented by the opposition are “false.”

The organisations denounced “brutal repression” against “those who exercised their right to political participation and protest” after the elections, when the Prosecutor’s Office recorded 25 deaths and more than 2,400 arrests in protests, which – the NGOs said – makes the renewal of the mission’s mandate “more urgent than ever.”

Purpose of the UN mission

They recalled that the monitoring group was created by the Human Rights Council in 2019 with the aim of investigating “extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment committed since 2014,” including sexual violence.

They stated that the mission “It was one of the first international mechanisms to affirm that the Venezuelan authorities have committed serious human rights violations as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population that could constitute crimes against humanity.”

“In its rigorous reports, it identified mid- and high-ranking authorities, including the head of state, as potentially responsible for human rights violations,” they said.

The government has called the mission “false and shameful” and says it “makes biased judgments.”

On September 19, the group will present its fifth report to the UN Human Rights Council. To extend its mandate, which has been done twice, a resolution from the body is required.