On 20 September the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Venezuela released its third report, which implicated President Nicolás Maduro, as well as other high-level individuals, in potential crimes against humanity.
The FFM investigated chains of command within the country’s military and civilian intelligence services – the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service – finding that both institutions “function as well-coordinated and effective structures in the implementation of a plan orchestrated at the highest levels of the government to repress dissent through crimes against humanity.”
In 2020 the FFM detailed patterns of violations and abuses, including extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, short-term enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment and sexual violence committed by Venezuelan security forces and intelligence services since at least 2014 as part of a “widespread and systematic attack” against the civilian population.
The latest report concluded that these violations and abuses continue to occur and that “the same structures, dynamics and practices remain in place.” In 2021 the FFM detailed how the domestic justice system perpetuates pervasive impunity for these crimes.
The FFM also investigated abuses in Venezuela’s gold mining region, Arco Minero del Orinoco, where state agents and armed criminal groups have allegedly committed killings, sexual and gender-based violence, torture, corporal punishment and disappearances, including against indigenous populations. The FFM warned of continued persecution against human rights defenders reporting on the multidimensional crisis.
Next week the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) will decide on a draft resolution – led by Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Paraguay – that aims to renew the FFM and mandate that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights continue to ensure ongoing investigations, public reporting and formal debates on the situation of human rights in Venezuela.
This follows a joint civil society call by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and 124 other organizations requesting ongoing international scrutiny into crimes against humanity in Venezuela.
In light of the FFM’s recent findings, HRC member states must actively support this initiative and, in the likely event that a vote is called, vote in favor of the draft text.
Elisabeth Pramendorfer, Senior Human Rights Officer at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, said that, “with no domestic institutions to turn to for accountability, justice and redress, the FFM plays a crucial role in shedding light on what has happened to victims, their families and loved ones, and contributes to advancing international justice proceedings for ongoing atrocity crimes in Venezuela.”
