41st regular session of Human Rights Council
Item 3 – General Debate
Speaker: Beatriz Borges
Thank you, Mr. President,
ISHR presents this declaration together with Aula Abierta and CEPAZ and other Venezuelan civil society groups. We welcome the visit of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to Venezuela and the establishment of a delegation of the Office that will remain in the country with a mandate to provide technical assistance and advice and thus continue to monitor the human rights situation in Venezuela. Likewise, we insist on the importance of signing the agreements made by the Office to the illegitimate government of Nicolás Maduro so that they are complied with.
The role of the High Commissioner has been relevant in the visibility of the crisis and the violation of human rights in Venezuela. However, it is necessary for the United Nations to assume a more active and proactive role in the urgent and necessary solution to the complex crisis, addressing it in a coherent and comprehensive manner with the activation of simultaneous mechanisms that address the humanitarian situation and allow us to find a peaceful, electoral and democratic solution through the restoration of political rights in Venezuela. In this regard, the good offices of the Secretary-General and the Technical Electoral Assistance of the UN to advance concrete actions are fundamental.
Finally, we would like to recall that during and after the first visit of the technical commission in March and the participation of Civil Society and victims in the meeting with the High Commissioner in June, cases of reprisals could be documented. We want to emphasize that the effectiveness of the monitoring and assistance mechanism is subject to the active and unrestricted interaction of those victims, human rights defenders and other stakeholders interested in collaborating with the delegation of the Office of the High Commissioner in Venezuela.
Therefore, Mr. President, we urge the members of the Human Rights Council to urgently request the authorities in Venezuela to guarantee the integrity of those defenders, victims and other interested actors who seek to provide information and receive assistance from the Office’s team. High Commissioner present in Venezuela.
Beatriz Borges is the Executive Director of The Justice and Peace Center (CEPAZ), a non-profit organization that works to promote and defend democratic values, human rights, and a culture of peace in Venezuela. CEPAZ’s main areas of action include the promotion of public policies and good government practices with respect to human rights, litigation before international bodies that protect human rights, and the use of information and communications technologies in the human rights field. She is a professor and researcher at the Center for Human Rights of the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, where she researches international systems for the protection of human rights.–Biography from Wilson Center
