The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission of the United Nations (UN) on Venezuela released this Tuesday a new report in which it expands and details the situation of violation of Human Rights in the country, and in particular the repressive actions recorded before and after the presidential elections of July 28.
The 185-page document presents the conclusions of the investigation carried out by experts from the international body and documents the actions of security forces and pro-government armed civil groups in cases of arbitrary detentions, torture, forced disappearances and sexual violence, carried out “as part of a coordinated plan to silence opponents or perceived as such.”
The text dedicates a section to describing acts contrary to human rights committed against children and adolescents, and even against people with disabilities.
The Mission concluded that “it has reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct that constitutes the crime against humanity of politically motivated persecution was committed in relation to the crimes of imprisonment or serious deprivation of physical freedom in violation of fundamental norms of international law, torture, rape or any other form of sexual violence and other inhuman acts of a similar nature that intentionally cause great suffering or seriously harm physical integrity or mental or physical health.”
The report adds other actions that constitute crimes of deprivation of fundamental rights, such as: the right to participate in public affairs and the freedoms of expression, association and assembly.
The document indicates, on page 181, that all these behaviors violate the rights to personal freedom and security, to personal integrity, to due process, to be treated humanely and with the respect due to the inherent dignity of the human being, as well as such as the right to be equal before the law and to equal protection thereof without discrimination.
“Taken together, all these deprivations of rights reach the threshold of severity required by international criminal law to constitute the crime against humanity of persecution.”
To prepare the report – which covers a time period of almost a year – the Mission conducted 366 remote or in-person interviews with 383 people (203 men and 180 women) and consulted dozens of judicial files, documentary and audiovisual sources.
Likewise, four research missions were carried out in three countries. Additionally, to account for the new violations and crimes recorded in the electoral period, a call was made to collect information via social networks and websites, which allowed more than 400 communications to be received.
To date, national NGOs count 1,784 people arrested since July 29. The figure includes 70 adolescents between 14 and 17 years old.
State Policy
The international body warned in its conclusions that all the violations described are part of the state policy of “silence, discourage and suffocate opposition to the Government, taking into account that they have similar elements: they are committed through the same modus operandi, by the same perpetrators (state institutions, State security forces and groups of armed civilians that support the Government) and with respect to the same victims, that is, people who are opponents or perceived as such and people who are critical of the Government.”
The UN Mission specified that the actions linked to the violation of Human Rights were directed against the victims due to the identity of a group or community, defined by having opinions or positions critical of the Government (as a political entity), and by being perceived by him as people who oppose his decisions and actions.
In some cases, sympathizers are even targeted, as well as close relatives of opponents or people who do not have political convictions, but who are perceived as obstacles to the realization of the Government’s political agenda.
Likewise, the report continues, there have been documented cases of people who “only have some reference to the political opposition on their cell phones and have been subject to multiple serious violations of their human rights.” “In other words, it is the definition of the ‘political enemy’ by the perpetrator that leads to his persecution.”
“As required by the crime against humanity of persecution, the conduct was carried out with a discriminatory intention (…) Discriminatory motives are prohibited by international law,” the text adds.
Editorial / Caracas
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