41st session of the Human Rights Council - Enhanced ID: Oral statement issued by OMCT and COFAVIC
Human Rights Council
41th period of sessions (from 24 June 2019 to 12July 2019)
Item 2: Enhanced ID on Venezuela (5 July 2019)
Oral statementissued by the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) and COFAVIC
OMCT and COFAVIC welcome the report on the humanrights situation in Venezuela, as well as the recent visit of the HighCommissioner.
OMCT and COFAVIC express deep concern about the ongoingand ever-deteriorating human rights crisis of in Venezuela. Our organisationskeep documenting a sustained increase in extrajudicial executions, torture,cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and arbitrary detentions in the country.
Security operations,in particular those led by the Special Actions Force (FAES) and the CICPC, incoordination with the armed forces, have resulted in a systematicpattern of extrajudicial executions inimpoverished areas of the country, including also indigenous communities suchas the Warao. COFAVIC has registered in the last two years(2017 and 2018) 3684 alleged extrajudicial executions nationwide, mostly menunder 25.
Often theseoperations, which in most cases are carried out in neighborhoods where protestshad taken place to demand the access to basic services, involve multiplevictims. Entire communities are hit indiscriminately bythe excessive use of force employed, including women, children and persons ofadvanced age. Victims consistently report having been obstructed to filecomplaints to the relevant authorities and fear of reprisals.
In this context, international oversight, inparticular the intervention of the Human Rights Council and the Office of the HighCommissioner, is at last a glimmer of hope for thousands of victims.
In solidarity with them we hope that the Council,following the recommendations of the High Commissioner’s report, takes actionto ensure that the perpetrators of gross human rights violations, includinghigh ranking authorities, are held to account; that FAES is dismantled, and so areall the exceptional measures which continue restricting human rights and thespace to exercise and promote them; and that access to all places of detentionis guaranteed to the OHCHR presence in the country, while urging Venezuela toratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.