The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) said on Tuesday it had found “serious human rights violations” that occurred in Venezuela during the country’s election cycle, where authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro was elected to a term of third as president.
The report documented abuses committed by the government, security forces and civilian groups allied to Maduro, including arbitrary detentions, short-term enforced disappearances, torture and sexual abuse.
The mission also counted 158 children (130 boys and 28 girls) who were arrested in the post-election protests and charged with crimes such as terrorism. As of October 14, the rights group Foro Penal has documented 1,936 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Days before submitting its latest report, on October 11, the UNHRC adopted a resolution to extend its fact-finding mission on Venezuela for another two years.
About the Fact Finding Mission
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was established by UNHCR in September 2019 to “investigate extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment since 2014”.
The mandate of the mission was extended by the Council twice already, in 2020 and 2022.
The Venezuelan government has refused to cooperate with the mission since its inception. However, over the past five years, the mission has been instrumental in documenting human rights abuses committed by Venezuelan authorities and has played a central role in protecting evidence in the pursuit of truth and justice in the country.
This latest mandate renewal resolution was introduced by a group of regional governments – Argentina, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay and Uruguay – and asked the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue monitoring the situation in Venezuela.
The resolution was approved with 23 votes in favor and 6 against and 18 abstentions, an increase in support compared to the last resolution in 2022. The countries that voted against the resolution were: Alegria, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Sudan and Vietnam. Brazil abstained.
Latest Mission Report
The latest report is an extension of a report the mission submitted to the UNHRC in September. The report examined the period between September 1, 2023, and August 31, 2024, and noted a deterioration in the human rights situation in Venezuela, particularly after the July 28 elections.
Human rights violations in Venezuela intensified “reaching unprecedented levels of violence,” mission head Marta Valiñas said when she presented the report.
According to the report, Maduro’s government has “reactivated and intensified the harshest and most violent mechanisms of its repressive apparatus” to silence dissent.
In the wake of the July elections, spontaneous protests broke out across the country in opposition to the government’s announcement of President Maduro’s re-election without releasing any detailed election results.
Venezuelan authorities admitted to arresting more than 2,200 people between July 29 and August 6. The report confirmed 25 deaths in this post-election period.
The report confirmed the detention of 158 children (130 boys and 28 girls), some accused of serious crimes such as terrorism. Valiñas defined this “phenomenon” as “new and extremely disturbing.
Arrests were involved and followed with serious violations of due process. Criminal proceedings against prisoners in the post-election crisis “systematically failed to meet minimum due process guarantees,” the report said.
The mission concluded that some of the violations documented “including arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence, and other violations committed in connection therewith, taken as a whole, constitute the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds.”
Reactions to renewal
The Venezuelan government has always rejected the findings of the mission. Alexander Yánez, Venezuela’s UN representative, rejected the renewal of the “illegal” mission, calling it an “instrument of coercion and blackmail.”
Meanwhile, Edmundo González Urrutia – the opposition candidate widely considered to have won the July election, according to precinct-level voting tabulations published online by the opposition – said the decision was a “major step”, noting that the mandate had been ” key to documenting serious human rights violations” affecting the country.
Amnesty International as well as other local human rights NGOs such as the Venezuelan Human Rights Education-Action Program (PROVEA) welcomed the renovation.
Amnesty International’s Americas Director, Ana Piquer, said: “Amidst the relentless human rights crisis facing the people of Venezuela, today’s decision by the Human Rights Council helps turn the world’s attention to the suffering of the victims and their just struggle. for justice.”
