The Center for Human Rights Defenders and Justice (CDJ) recorded 28 attacks and security incidents in Venezuela during February 2021
The policy of criminalization of the defense and demand for human rights deepened in February 2021. Under the logic of the internal enemy, the Venezuelan State persists in the implementation of actions and measures that hinder the work of human rights defenders and humanitarian action, through attacks that violate the international standards and obligations on the respect, protection, and guarantee of the right to defend human rights.
Through different mechanisms, the policy of criminalization, framed in the logic of the internal enemy and the National Security Doctrine, continues to deepen and pose greater risks to human rights defenders in the exercise of their work of promoting and protecting human rights.
The 28 incidents recorded during February included 15 cases of stigmatization, six cases of intimidation and harassment, 5 cases of judicial persecution, and two digital attacks.
Defending human rights in Venezuela means facing a repressive environment of social control and severe restrictions on civic space, including abuses against human rights and humanitarian organizations. The continuity of the aggressions and the inexistence of favorable and safe environments for the defense and demand of rights show the consolidation of the logic of the internal enemy and the policy of discrimination shielded by the National Security Doctrine.
We urge the Venezuelan State to immediately cease the policy of criminalization. Defending human rights and carrying out humanitarian work are not crimes.
You can read the full version in Spanish of the CDJ February 2021 Report on the Situation of human rights defenders in Venezuela HERE.
