MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, February 16 (IPS) – At the end of January, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, completed a official visit to Venezuela. He speak he sees a fragmented society in dire need of healing divisions and encourages the government to take the lead in listening to civil society concerns and responding to victims of human rights abuses.
But Venezuelan civil society was hoping for more. Two days before his arrival, the National Assembly, the congress of Venezuela, approved read for the first time a law aimed at further restricting and criminalizing civil society work. International civil society urge The High Commissioner called for the bill to be scrapped. Many found the UN’s response disappointing.
Another rotation of the screw
The bill imposes additional restrictions on civil society organizations (CSOs). If it becomes law, CSOs will have to hand over lists of members, employees, assets and sponsors. They will be obliged to provide detailed data on their activities, funding and use of financial resources – the kind of information that has been used to persecute and criminalize civil society organizations. and activists. The same law was used in Nicaragua to turn off hundreds of civil society organizations and arrest opposition leaders, journalists and human rights defenders.
The law would ban civil society organizations from conducting ‘political activities’, a term that lacks a clear definition. It can easily be interpreted as banning human rights activity and government surveillance. It is more likely that this law will be used against human rights organizations that cooperate with international human rights mechanisms. This would jeopardize civil society’s efforts to document the human rights situation, which provide important inputs to the United Nations human rights system and the International Criminal Court, the official ongoing case against Venezuela.
The law-making process is kept secret: draft laws are not made public and are not discussed in the National Assembly before being passed. The initiative was immediate denounce as one tool to control, restrict, and potentially shut down CSOs and criminally prosecute their leaders and employees. If implemented, it could mean the end of civil society as we know it in Venezuela.
UN and Venezuela
The previous High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, visited Venezuela in September 2019. She was criticized for taking a cautious approach. Furthermore, most of the commitments in agreement The government signed with her was never done.
After that visit, the UN Human Rights Council establish The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (FFMV), tasked with investigating allegations of human rights abuses. In September 2022, FFMV grant a report detailing the involvement of Venezuelan intelligence agencies in suppressing dissent, including human rights abuses such as torture and sexual violence.
But threaten only grew as Türk’s visit approached, with some protest leaders being monitored, tracked and detained.
Venezuela’s civil society organizations call for more powerful approach, but Türk followed in the footsteps of its predecessor. His visit was characterized by secrecy and brevity, especially in terms of time spent engaging with civil society.
Bachelet’s agreement with the government included the presence of a two-man United Nations team to monitor the human rights situation and provide assistance and advice. This has now been extended for two years, but the details have not been made public.
Civil society activists have continued to work closely with the UN field office and don’t want to risk its presence in the country, so to some extent , they understood Türk’s caution in dealing with the Venezuelan government. But they also see his visit as a missed opportunity.
Turkey declare with the media at the end of his visit focused heavily on political and economic crises as well as healing divisions in society, with the ‘challenge’ of human rights taking third place in the list. list of his main interests.
Alerta Venezuela, a human rights group based in Colombia, recognized the references Türk makes to ‘new issues’ – such as Venezuela’s need to sign off The Escazu . Agreement environmental rights and the legalization of abortion – in addition to ongoing human rights abuses such as extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and torture. But it criticized key shortcomings and the United Nations’ apparent willingness to take government data at face value.
Regarding the anti-NGO bill, the High Commissioner said he asked the government to consider his comments but did not provide any information on their content, so it is unclear if he supports the proposal. change the law or not. only deeply flawed or let it be shelved – that’s what civil society wants him to do.
The Venezuelan government has long talked about cooperating with the UN and not keeping its promises. Repression will only increase in the run-up to the presidential election scheduled for 2024. Any strategy that involves trusting the government and hoping it will change its constitution Your school is likely to fail.
Need high-level human rights advocacy
Stronger criticisms come from the FFMV which is independent and less politically bound. expressed ‘deeply concerned’ about the potential impacts of the draft NGO law on the democratic and civic space.
That is the position that civil society wants the High Commissioner for Human Rights to take. They want the person holding the position to be a human rights fighter who is independent of other countries and is not afraid of causing a stir in public opinion.
Türk has only five months left in his four-year term. Civil society will continue to do its best to participate, with the hope that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights can become the human rights advocate that the world – and Venezuela – needs.
Ines M. Pousadela is a Senior Research Specialist at CIVICUS, co-director and writer for CITIZEN lens and co-author of Report on the current state of civil society.
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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
