The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, approved by the UN, expresses a “deep concern” about the human rights situation in the country after the US attack this Saturday and the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
In a statement, the mission warns of the risk of “new and serious human rights violations” in the coming days and weeks, in a context of high volatility.
He adds that he closely follows the rapid evolution of the situation in Venezuela and the impact on the rights, security and protection of the population.
AND urges the Venezuelan and US authorities, as well as the international community, to guarantee full respect for international lawremembering that the rights of the Venezuelan people have been “systematically violated for too long.”
For all these reasons, human rights must, without exception, take first place, he adds.
In this sense, it highlights the need to “guarantee accountability for the serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed (in Venezuela) by its government.”
According to the note, “these violations, extensively documented by the UN Fact-Finding Mission, include extrajudicial executions and other arbitrary deprivations of life.”
Also “arbitrary detentions; forced disappearances—mostly of short duration—; torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; as well as sexual and gender violence.”
For this reason, the president of the Fact-Finding Mission, Marta Valiñas, urges to maintain the focus on “the serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity that have been committed against the Venezuelan population.”
US intervention “is not justified”, according to UN Mission
For his part, Alex Neve, an expert from the UN Mission, considers that The Maduro government’s long record of serious human rights violations “does not justify a military intervention by the United States that violates international law.”
But equally, the illegality of the attack “in no way diminishes the clear responsibility of Venezuelan officials, including Mr. Maduro, for years of repression and violence that constitute crimes against humanity.”
And responsibility for these violations is not limited to Maduro, according to María Eloísa Quintero, a member of the mission: “Other people who exercised command or authority over the security forces, or who otherwise contributed to the commission of these crimes, must also be held accountable.”
The United Nations Human Rights Council established this mission in 2019, renewed several times, to evaluate alleged human rights violations committed since 2014.
