Mr. President,
We share the High Commissioner’s alarm over the human rights crisis in Venezuela.
The death in custody of opposition figure Alfredo Díaz a few days ago is a stark reminder of the government’s brutality. He spent over a year in incommunicado detention and was denied adequate medical care.
Nearly 900 political prisoners — including 86 foreign nationals — remain in jail in similar conditions. Many have suffered enforced disappearances, arbitrary and incommunicado detention, and denial of due process. According to Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón (JEP), at least 90 suffer from serious medical conditions and have received grossly inadequate treatment.
The authorities have consistently refused to cooperate with this Council’s FFM and long since disengaged from the Inter-American human rights system. But the recent closure of the OHCHR country office, and Venezuela’s current process to withdraw from the Rome Statute, are alarming, though consistent with the authorities’ efforts to ensure impunity for serious rights violations.
In this context, the mandate of the OHCHR and the FFM remains vital to ensure thorough investigations with a view to supporting justice and accountability, and we urge member states and UN leadership to ensure they have support to allow it to carry out its important investigations. Member States should also intensify diplomatic efforts to secure independent medical care for detainees and to press for the release of all political prisoners.
High Commissioner, what concrete actions could States take to support the work of your Office and the FFM, and advance human rights protection and accountability in Venezuela?
Thank you.
