UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, 44th SESSION
Topic 4: Interactive Dialogue – Report on Venezuela (res. 42/25)
Geneva, July 15, 2020
Intervention of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and COFAVIC
“In Venezuela, a generalized climate of violence persists, especially affecting the most vulnerable sectors of the population. Between January 2012 and March 2020, COFAVIC has been able to document 11,328 alleged cases of extrajudicial executions. Young people from popular sectors are the main victims, and impunity has been a cross-cutting axis. 71% of the cases occurred during special operations and 55% occurred in broad daylight, as a form of social control in the areas where the events occurred. The government has ignored the recommendations of the High Commissioner on the dissolution of the FAES. Women are often at the forefront of the fight for truth, justice and reparations in cases of human rights violations. These women face social exclusion due to public shame and stigmatization and, in many cases, denounce threats and acts of harassment and criminalization.
In this context, it is vitally important to mention the difficulties that people who defend human rights present in Venezuela. Under the State of Alarm, attacks against them have increased, especially in the case of journalists and health professionals who have exercised their freedom of expression to report on the management of the health crisis.
Finally, the right to effective judicial protection has been strongly affected in this pandemic context. On March 16, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered that no court would be operative, with the sole exception of urgent actions. This has created a risk of arbitrariness on the part of officials that exposes victims of human rights violations to a greater lack of protection and helplessness amidst the complex humanitarian emergency and the human rights crisis.”
