UN launches Venezuela human rights abuse probe
The United Nations top rights body cast a vote on Friday in favor of sending human rights investigators to crisis-wracked Venezuela.
A round-table discussion led by 47 countries from Latin America and elsewhere voted on adopting the resolution with 19 members of the council voting in favor, seven opposing and 21 abstaining.
The Geneva-based forum called to “dispatch urgently an independent international fact-finding mission” to Venezuela on the last day of its three-week session.
As a result, an independent commission will be established to “investigate extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment since 2014”.
The decision follows concerns expressed by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet during her July visit to Venezuela. Bachelet said that security forces on the ground were sending death squads to murder men, staging the scenes to make it appear as if the men resisted arrest.
At least 6,000 killings were reported to have taken place during the operations.
New Mission
The fact-finding commission intends to document and present their work to the Council within a year.
The call for an inquiry was made at the request of the Lima Group, a multilateral coalition of 12 countries set up in 2017 to establish a peaceful exit to the Venezuelan crisis. The Group set the foundations of the resolution.
“Venezuelans, men and women, cannot wait any longer” for justice, said the representative of Peru, on behalf of the sponsoring nations, which also included countries such as Brazil and Israel.
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EU supports probe
The resolution outlined that the investigation should be conducted “with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims”.
The decision also received the backing of the European Union.
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Venezuela slams resolution, blames Trump
Jorge Valero, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, called the resolution a “hostile initiative”, and said Venezuela will not cooperate with the new investigation.
“The imposition of an additional monitoring mechanism will never receive the consent of my country,” Valero told the council.
“This small group follows to a tee instruments handed to them by the American empire, these are shameful subjects of administration of President Trump,” Valero added.
mvb/ng (AFP, EFE, Reuters)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/un-launches-venezuela-human-rights-abuse-probe/a-50606619?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf