Venezuela remains outside the Human Rights Council. H H. from the ONU

First modification: 10/12/2022 – 02:57

The General Assembly “correctly closed the door” to Venezuela’s attempt to remain in the United Nations Human Rights Council. Louis Charbonneau, director of the UN for Human Rights Watch, celebrated the result of the elections on Tuesday, October 11, which removes the South American country from its seat within the organization.

This Council is made up of 47 States, responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights throughout the world. The member countries present themselves divided by region, and are elected by the UN General Assembly for a period of three years. And in this year’s election, the most closely watched contest was in Latin America.

In 2019, Venezuela narrowly gained a spot. To repeat, 97 votes were required and Venezuela only obtained 88; while Chile reached 144 and Costa Rica, 134. “It is great news that the UN General Assembly has rejected Venezuela’s candidacy for re-election to the Human Rights Council,” Louis Charbonneau reacted in a tweet, before recalling that “UN investigators have found evidence that Maduro and others in his government are responsible for crimes against humanity.”

Indeed, just a month ago, the UN Independent International Mission for Venezuela denounced that the Venezuelan intelligence services commit crimes against humanity to repress political dissidence.

These experts described, among other things, the torture and mistreatment suffered by dozens of people in detention centers of the Venezuelan intelligence services, under the orders of the highest levels of government.

In addition, the Human Rights Council itself approved last week, with opposition from the Maduro government, to continue investigating and documenting the violations in the country.

Venezuelan opponents applaud the Council’s decision

Therefore, several opponents and NGOs in Venezuela celebrated the result of the vote. “It would have been an enormous injustice if consolidated democracies that respect human rights such as Chile’s or Costa Rica’s were defeated by Venezuela,” said Alí Daniels, director of the NGO Acceso a la Justicia.

For his part, the opposition and two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles expressed, through his Twitter account, that the government “should never have held a position on the Human Rights Council.” because “he never met the requirements and has not stopped committing abuses”.

Finally, for the opposition Juan Guaidó, with the departure of Venezuela from the organ, “justice is done, in some way, for the victims.”

China and Russia lose an ally

With the departure of Venezuela as well, China and Russia lost an important ally in this UN entity. Indeed, the composition of this council matters, especially in a context of acute geopolitical tensions that end up being debated in Geneva.

“Venezuela has been a constant ally of both China and Russia in this council,” confirmed Tess McEvoy of the NGO International Service for Human Rights. An example of this occurred on October 6, in a session where for the first time an attempt was made to discuss and approve resolutions on the situation in China. “Venezuela opposed a simple debate on the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Xinjiang (China), as well as the vote in which a special rapporteur on the situation in Russia was requested,” McEvoy added. .

Chile and Costa Rica will join the Council next January, joining other Latin American countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico and Paraguay. The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, celebrated the good news.

For its part, the Costa Rican government thanked the member states that supported its candidacy and reiterated that it assumes “the commitment to decisively contribute to the strengthening of the universal system for the protection and promotion of human rights, based on solidarity and international cooperation.” This is the second time in history that Costa Rica will occupy a seat on the Council, as it had already done so in the 2012-2014 period.

With AFP, EFE and local media