Faced with the neglect of the Venezuelan State, non-governmental organizations have taken up the fight for the fundamental rights of Venezuelans, including access to justice, food, healthcare, decent wages and freedom of expression
NGOs mark Human Rights Day with the commitment of their members and volunteers to the recovery of adequate living conditions for all Venezuelans
December 10 marks Human Rights Day, a date that commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly in 1948, an instrument establishing the respect for the fundamental rights of all people regardless of their race, gender, religious belief, political position, language or sexual orientation.
In Venezuela, different national and international organizations have denounced the Venezuelan State over the constant violations of the basic rights of the population, the persecution and imprisonment of political dissidents, the criminalization of protest, and its failure to comply with the constitutional mandate of guaranteeing decent wages, access to healthcare and basic services. In addition, the situation in Venezuela is under investigation by the International Criminal Court for the alleged commission of crimes against humanity in the country, including alleged systematic murders in the context of protests, extrajudicial executions, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners.
The Venezuelan media outlet Runrunes consulted several members of non-governmental human rights organizations who explained the scope and challenges of their work and the efforts that remain to be done in order to recover adequate living conditions for Venezuelans in the framework of the Complex Humanitarian Emergency.
An empty shell
According to Laura Louza, director and founder of the NGO Acceso a la Justicia, the Venezuelan institutions are a sort of empty shell, as they fail to respond to citizens’ requests. Since its creation, her organization has taken on the mission of reporting irregularities in legal matters.
“We explain complex issues such as the process at the International Criminal Court so that people can be aware of their rights… We are always attentive to the conduct of the Venezuelan State,” she added.
According to Louza, the lack of institutions in Venezuela has accelerated the Complex Humanitarian Emergency. “The Government does not assume its responsibilities and hides behind pretexts such as international sanctions… In the medium term, those in power might have to change their way of governing as discontent seems to be growing… In the end, we ask the Government to reconsider and dedicate itself to citizens,” she added.
The lawyer asserted that this year, the Venezuelan Government was exposed before international instances such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw), the ICC, the Fact-Finding Mission and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“The recommendations of each of these bodies are very valuable, more and more mechanisms are being opened to address the abuses that are committed in Venezuela. We expect the Government to understand that this is constructive rather than destructive criticism. “It doesn’t matter who is in power, the important thing is that human rights are respected, that people are not repressed for thinking differently or demanding their fundamental rights,” she stressed.
Remembering is also doing justice
Being next to the victims and their families is the work of the NGO Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón and its coordinator-general Martha Tineo.
The organization’s mission revolves around “the search for justice in both national and international instances. In the case of political prisoners, we advocate for their release and the investigation and prosecution of the cases of torture, without impunity and with guarantees of non-repetition,” Tineo explains.
However, the organization’s capacity to care for victims and relatives pales in comparison with the government apparatus. “We could not expect to replace the State in its functions,” Ms. Tineo asserted.
The expert in justice systems explained that her organization has made efforts, especially in the context of the Complex Humanitarian Emergency, to document cases of human rights violations before bodies such as the UN Fact-Finding Mission.
“We cannot guarantee justice to the victims, but we document the cases and assist the victims in the face of processes before international bodies given the omission on the part of the State,” she said.
Thanks to the work of NGOs, the victims have been able to present their cases before international bodies in order to obtain justice, Tineo explained.
“Although it has been a difficult year, we have made progress… Unfortunately, this does not translate into obtaining justice, but based on independent initiatives by different NGOs, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court authorized the Prosecutor to continue his investigation into Venezuela, whose Office had determined that the Venezuelan State is incapable of advancing judicial processes that are transparent, legitimate and under the law,” she recalled.
The lawyer indicated that there is no will in the institutions of the Venezuelan State to prosecute alleged crimes against humanity committed in the framework of anti-government protests: “For the victims, being remembered is important, and our organization works under the motto of remembering is a way of doing justice.”
Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón not only provides advice and accompaniment to the victims in legal matters. Tineo mentioned that “we also support them emotionally. By understanding that pain unites us, we can transform that pain into strength. This year we inaugurated the first virtual museum of memory and repression in Venezuela, to recognize the faces of the victims and as a way to honor their relatives.”
According to Tineo, the pattern of persecution could be stronger in 2024 because it will be an election year.
“Recently, members of local NGO Súmate, Encuentro Ciudadano party and a trade union in the eastern Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui have been arrested, in a pattern of persecution that is becoming increasingly targeted. Under a logic of exemplary punishment, they publicized the torture of John Alvarez, an anthropology student at the Central University of Venezuela… This is an affront,” she warned.
Tineo believes that it is essential to obtain justice through denunciation, documentation and dissemination, but also to rebuild the country: “It is worth noting that Venezuela continues to be under the spotlight at the UN Human Rights Council amid the chaotic international situation”
NGOs that save lives
In the opinion of Ana Rosario Contreras, president of the Association of Nurses of the Capital District, the advocacy work of different organizations and volunteers has alleviated the catastrophe that Venezuela is experiencing in terms of healthcare.
“They have reduced the great risk that we have, their work has been excellent despite the adverse circumstances, they have been working for Venezuelans,” she assured.
Despite the neglect of the authorities, Ms. Contreras hopes that the Government understands that health is essential for the reintegration of patients into their productive phase.
“Today, hospitals are affected by a deficit of more than 80% in nursing staff as a result of low wages. This affects patients negatively, we cannot wait any longer, hospitals need to give a timely response, and we cannot continue seeing children dying due to shortages,” she lamented.
The deputy chairman of the National Academy of Medicine, Huniades Urbina Medina, assured that the right to health is violated every day in Venezuela.
“There are no adequate programs to fight malaria or ensure the protection of women and adolescents, there is not enough equipment to diagnose breast and uterine cancer, the leading cause of mortality among women in Venezuela,” he detailed.
Urbina maintained that the shortages and limited availability of space in hospitals are one of the main violations of the right to health.
“There are no pharmacy or nutrition services, patients cannot denounce the conditions of local hospitals, vaccines are in short supply and the vaccination coverage reaches just 50.8% in the country, there is no drinking water…We have to continue making the problems visible and denounce the situation before international instances such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR),” indicated the pediatric intensive care doctor.
Workers united for their human rights
According to José Calma, an analyst with the Observatory on Labor Conflict Observatory at the Institute of Higher Trade Union Studies (Inaesin), the organization of workers in defense of their rights and interests and their active participation in the next presidential elections are key to achieving an improvement in labor conditions.
Calma explained that a low minimum wage, which the government has not increased for more than 600 days, constitutes a violation of the national Constitution “by not allowing a life with dignity and ensuring the basic material, social and intellectual needs of the people and their families,” as the text commands.
He questioned the Government’s argument for an alleged inability to increase salaries. “The public sector is large in terms of the number of employees and the government seeks to balance salary shortfalls with contributions in the form of food boxes. This leads us to ponder the question of whether the Government is directly guaranteeing the basic needs or operates under a theoretical notion of slavery where people work for food,” he said.
Calma expressed that the territorial conflict with Guyana, which saw huge spending of resources in the framework of a recent consultative referendum on the matter, has relegated the violations of human rights to the second row in the media.
“However, the NGOs dedicated to the defense of human rights have not stopped raising their voices to denounce abuses against Venezuelans, including students and trade unions.”
The specialist in union matters indicated that the agreements with the International Labor Organization (ILO), which Venezuela has ratified, provide an important legal framework in favor of workers.
“But the domestic justice system is slow to respond and does not always deliver fair decisions for everyone who fights for what they consider legally valid.”
Mr. Calma maintained that the expectation or hope of Venezuelan workers in terms of wages continues to be complex: “Aspects such as the current economic and sociopolitical situation, the enormous Venezuelan diaspora, the increase in the informal economy, school dropouts, the lack of interest in professionalization in the face of the few job opportunities for young people, together with the prioritization of opportunities for express economic production, provide a panorama of complexity.”
For her part, the president of the Association of Nurses of the Capital District, Ana Rosario Contreras, emphasized that trade unions in Venezuela will continue to insist on the need for a fair salary increase.
“Because there are two parties in every employment relationship, and the responsibility lies with the employer. We are only asking the Government to comply with Article 91 of the Constitution, which speaks of the obligation to establish a minimum wage in perfect harmony with the cost of the basic basket, which exceeds 500 US dollars. We have had the lowest salary in the world for two years, which puts social benefits and collective contracts at risk,” she recalled.
Contreras indicated that union protest should not be considered a crime in Venezuela.
“We have seen with great concern how the protest has been judicialized, union leaders have been deprived of their freedom of demanding respect for workers’ rights, but we have turned fear into a force to move forward.”
Prison chaos has a solution
For Carlos Nieto Palma, coordinator-general of the NGO Una Ventana a la Libertad, the chaos in the Venezuelan prison system has a solution but there has been no political will to implement it.
“And that has to do with corruption in prisons, Elio Gomez Grillo (lawyer and criminologist) said that prisons were a business as productive as oil,” Nieto Palma said.
December 10 marked the 26th anniversary of Una Ventana a la Libertad. “We were the first organization to monitor the situation of people deprived of liberty, and we contributed to the drafting of the articles that have to do with the prison system for the 1999 national Constitution”.
The main mission of the organizations is to monitor the situation of the human rights of persons deprived of liberty.
“We denounce the recent increase in human rights violations in Venezuelan prisons, we have a legal advice department to provide free guidance to prisoners and their families, we organize medical visits that have benefited 5,000 prisoners in 5 years,” he explained.
Nieto Palma said that the crisis in preventive detention centers or cells has increased in recent years, where overcrowding has led to disease and violence.
“We are constantly sending information to international organizations such as the United Nations and the IACHR; there is a special lack of interest on the part of the Venezuelan domestic agencies in charge of the wellbeing of prisoners,” he denounced.
The violation of human rights begins in Venezuela
The sociologist and founder of the Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights (Provea), Ligia Bolívar, said that the work of NGOs has contributed to ensuring the protection of the human rights of Venezuelan migrants in host countries.
“The organizations work in both the humanitarian and legal field to help people protect their immigration status and human rights,” she commented.
Bolívar indicated that another group of organizations works to integrate the Venezuelan diaspora into the receiving nations:
“These organizations work at the community level to advocate for integration policies that address the needs of the local Venezuelan migrant population and their progressive integration, especially girls, boys and adolescents of school age. “These are large-scale operations because we are talking about almost 8 million people.”
Ms. Bolívar recalled that the majority of migrants did not leave Venezuela of their own free will.
“The violation of their human rights does not begin in the host countries, it begins in Venezuela, and migrants flee because their fundamental rights are not guaranteed in the country.”
Translated by Jose Rafael Medina
