Venezuela has been elected to become part of the United Nations Human Rights Council for a 3 year period. Venezuela now becomes one of the 47 members of this organism of the UN, which in September established an independent fact-finding body for Venezuela, a special mechanism for countries with severe human rights situations.
While the government has quickly declared the election as a victory, it is important to point out that this position does not exonerate Venezuela from its obligations and responsibilities derived from the human rights international law that the UN follows. The de-facto government encounters the fact that the compliance with their duty to cooperate with the Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will be evaluated by their peers in the Council, as well as their duty to cooperate with the rapporteurs and the independent working groups whose reports are presented to the Council. Even as a member of the Council, Venezuela will not be able to prevent being evaluated on its duty to cooperate in good faith with the body.
On the other hand, the majority of the 47 members of the Council are democracies with antagonistic values to the Venezuelan dictatorship. It will be difficult for Maduro’s government officials to kick the board as they did in the Inter-American Human Rights System when their peers in the Council demand them to comply with their duty. It will be really difficult for them to be prepared for the Council because their logic is not based on dialogue but on propaganda, it is not based on acting in good faith but on maneuvering to avoid international scrutiny and win time, they do not care about the human rights of Venezuelans but about perpetuating in power at the expense of the suffering of the population.
The de-facto government talks about the victory of a supposed diplomacy of peace, a term void of contents and created for the propaganda. After the blunt reports of the Office of the High Commissioner for Humans Rights of the recent years, after the agreements that they have not complied with the High Commissioner, and after the creation of the independent fact-finding body for Venezuela, it is very difficult to talk about a victory for that government. The national and international movement for human rights will keep exposing the bad faith and propaganda of that government, especially in the Human Rights Council where we have the right to speak and where we dialogue with the majority of the 47 members of the Council and with the rest of the members of the United Nations.
