<\/p>\n
(October 22, 2015)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Venezuela\u2019s human rights record, including as a member of the Human Rights Council, should preclude it from serving another term on the council, 36 international and Latin American human rights organizations said today. Elections for the 2016-2018 term of the council will be held in New York on October 28, 2015, by the United Nations General Assembly. Members of the Human Rights Council are required to uphold the highest standards in the protection and promotion of human rights.<\/p>\n The Venezuelan government\u2019s human rights practices, its rejection of the work of international human rights bodies, and its voting record at the Human Rights Council during the past three years make it unfit to hold a seat, the groups said.<\/p>\n While serving on the Human Rights Council, the Venezuelan government has seriously violated basic human rights standards the body is meant to promote. In 2014, Venezuelan security forces violently cracked down on largely peaceful protests systematically over a period of weeks. They arbitrarily arrested demonstrators and bystanders, severely beat and tortured them in detention, and denied them basic due process rights.<\/p>\n The government also arrested and prosecuted opposition politicians and lesser-known critics on arbitrary grounds, brought criminal defamation charges against owners and journalists working in critical media outlets, and harassed and intimidated human rights defenders who questioned these and other abuses of power.<\/p>\n In addition to its disregard for fundamental freedoms within its borders, the Venezuelan government has rejected meaningful scrutiny of its human rights record by international human rights bodies. It has not allowed the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit the country for over a decade, and has not allowed any UN special rapporteurs to visit since 1996. It withdrew from the American Convention on Human Rights in 2012, depriving Venezuelans who suffer abuses from seeking protection from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It rejected key recommendations issued during the 2011 Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record by the Human Rights Council and did not fully carry out those it accepted.<\/p>\n Venezuela also has one of the worst voting records at the Human Rights Council. It has repeatedly rejected resolutions aimed at addressing serious human rights violations, including country specific resolutions on Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine that were endorsed by other Latin American governments. At the UN Security Council, it blocked measures to curb abuses in South Sudan and Syria.<\/p>\n The groups said that reelecting Venezuela to the HRC would send a dangerous message that the international community is indifferent to Venezuela\u2019s violations of human rights and rejection of human rights mechanisms, and that the principles that the Human Rights Council was created to protect are not meant to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n Acci\u00f3n Solidaria en VIH\/Sida (Venezuela) Seriously Violates Human Rights Standards (October 22, 2015)\u00a0\u2013 Venezuela\u2019s human rights record, including as a member of the Human Rights Council, should preclude it from serving another term on the council, 36 international and Latin American human rights organizations said today. Elections for the 2016-2018 term of the council will be held in New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[681],"tags":[],"country":[888,897],"issue":[860],"program":[873],"resource":[896],"class_list":["post-21685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","country-america-del-sur","country-venezuela","issue-other-issues","program-transitional-justice-and-fight-against-impunity","resource-press-releases"],"acf":{"boton_1":"","url_boton_1\u00ba":"","boton_2":"","url_boton_2":"","boton_3":"","url_boton_3":"","boton_4":"","url_boton_4":"","boton_5":"","url_boton_5":"","boton_6":"","url_boton_6":"","boton_7":"","url_boton_7":"","boton_8":"","url_boton_8":"","boton_9":"","url_boton_9":"","boton_10":"","url_boton_10":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21686,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21685\/revisions\/21686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21685"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=21685"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=21685"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=21685"},{"taxonomy":"resource","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource?post=21685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAsociaci\u00f3n Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH) (Peru)
\nAsociaci\u00f3n por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) (Argentina)
\nAsamblea de Educaci\u00f3n (Venezuela)
\nCentro de Derechos Humanos de la Monta\u00f1a Tlachinollan, A.C. (M\u00e9xico)
\nCentro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agust\u00edn Pro Ju\u00e1rez, A.C. (Centro Prodh) (Mexico)
\nCEPAZ (Venezuela)
\nCIVICUS
\nCiudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos, A.C. (CADHAC) (Mexico)
\nCentro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Cat\u00f3lica Andr\u00e9s Bello (Venezuela)
\nCIVILIS Derechos Humanos (Venezuela)
\nCoalici\u00f3n de Organizaciones por el derecho a la salud y la vida (CODEVIDA) (Venezuela)
\nComisi\u00f3n Colombiana de Juristas (Colombia)
\nComisi\u00f3n para los Derechos Humanos del estado Zulia (CODHEZ) (Venezuela)
\nCorporaci\u00f3n Humanas (Chile)
\nCoordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (Peru)
\nDue Process of Law Foundation (DPLF)
\nEspacio P\u00fablico (Venezuela)
\nFenasopadres (Venezuela)
\nInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
\nInternational Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
\nInstituto de Estudios Legales y Sociales del Uruguay (IELSUR) (Uruguay)
\nFundaci\u00f3n Aguaclara (Venezuela)
\nFundaci\u00f3n Ensayos para el Aprendizaje Permanente (FEPAP) (Venezuela)
\nFundaci\u00f3n Myrna Mack (Guatemala)
\nHuman Rights Watch
\nObservatorio Ciudadano (Chile)
\nObservatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Los Andes (Venezuela)
\nObservatorio Venezolano de Prisiones (Venezuela)
\nObservatorio Venezolano de Salud (Venezuela)
\nPrograma Venezolano de Educaci\u00f3n Acci\u00f3n en Derechos Humanos (PROVEA) (Venezuela)
\nRobert F. Kennedy Human Rights
\nTransparency International
\nTransparencia Venezuela
\nUni\u00f3n Afirmativa (Venezuela)
\nVenezuela Diversa (Venezuela)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"