The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked this Wednesday (05) for the countries that make up the United Nations to vote against the reelection of Venezuela as a member of the Human Rights Council due to the history of repression of the regime of Nicolás Maduro.
“Venezuela’s vengeful attack on government critics makes the country unfit to be a member of the UN’s top human rights body,” Louis Charbonneau, director of the NGO, said in a statement.
The HRW representative said that the choice of Venezuela “would undermine the credibility of the UN, by rewarding the Venezuelan authorities with a role in judging other countries that are mistreating the population.”
The election of new members of the United Nations Human Rights Council will take place on October 11 this year, and Venezuela is competing with Chile and Costa Rica for two seats reserved for Latin American countries.
The choice will be made at the UN General Assembly and the selected countries will serve for a period of three years on the Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
In the case of Venezuela, which is seeking reelection, HRW denounces that the Maduro government “continues to repress dissent”, and that, according to a survey carried out in September, there are at least 244 political prisoners in the country, who have suffered “torture”. .
The UN Independent International Mission to Venezuela last month accused the country’s civil and military intelligence (Sebin and Dgcim, respectively) of committing crimes against humanity to repress political dissent, through a “modus operandi determined from the high ranking”.
In a report, these experts described the torture and ill-treatment suffered by dozens of people in Venezuelan intelligence detention centers.
HRW also highlights that between 2016 and 2019, security forces killed at least 19,000 people in incidents recorded, mostly, as “resistance to authorities”, which include “summary executions”.
The non-governmental organization, in addition, denounced the “regrettable human rights records” of other countries that want to reach the Council, in particular, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
The Human Rights Council is made up of 47 countries, which are elected for three-year terms, and since its inception it has often been criticized for accommodating countries with very dubious histories.
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