Let’s renew the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela

What do we want?

We want States to step up and support a resolution for the renewal of the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council. We want States to take meaningful and immediate action to support the Venezuelan people and human rights defenders and civil society organisations as they grapple with the grave, multidimensional crisis that has engulfed their country.We want truth and justice for victims.

The human rights crisis in Venezuela must stay high in the international community’s agenda. Supporting the resolution to extend the Mission’s mandate would show support to individual  defenders and organisations on the ground, all of whom contribute to inform the findings of the FFM’s investigations. 

What can you do?

We have been supporting local organisations and human rights defenders in their call to let the Fact-Finding Mission continue its crucial work. Join their voices too! 

Call on your government to support the resolution renewing the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela:

• If your State is part of the Core Group (Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay and Peru), call on them to ensure a strong resolution
• If your State is a member of the Human Rights Council, call on them to co-sponsor and to vote in favour of the resolution
• If your State is an observer State, call on them to co-sponsor the resolution

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to call on States to support the resolution to let the Fact-Finding Mission continue!

Voices from Venezuelan human rights defenders

Click on the pictures to find out more and know why the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela matters to them:

Clara Ramírez

FundaRedes

Clara Ramírez is a Venezuelan lawyer, human rights defender and interim director of FundaRedes. She coordinates human rights documentation projects along Venezuela’s borders.

Clara Ramírez

FundaRedes

Twitter

 

Who is Clara?

 

Clara Ramírez is a Venezuelan lawyer, human rights defender and Interim Director of FundaRedes. She coordinates human rights documentation projects along Venezuela’s borders, FundaRedes interviews victims of violations and abuses at the hands of State officials, guerrilla groups and criminal gangs, and provides them with support in submitting complaints to local, national and international human rights bodies. 

 

Currently, Clara is advocating for the release of her colleague, the general director of FundaRedes, Javier Tarazona. 

 

Javier Tarazona was arbitrarily detained in 2021 by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN). He has been tortured while in detention. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela has reported political interference in regard to his detention and has noted that  he has been denied a lawyer of this choice. 

 

Javier has worked for years to unite communities in the defence of human rights and democracy. His detention is wholly arbitrary and without foundation.  

 

Why is the FFM on Venezuela important for her vital work?

 

For those who are arbitrarily and unjustly detained or persecuted in Venezuela, like Clara’s colleague Javier Tarazona, the Mission provides the hope that those responsible for human rights violations will be held accountable. 

 

The Mission provides a roadmap of structural and systemic reforms necessary to provide Venezuelans with independent and accountable institutions to defend their rights and hold the State to account.

Wanda Cedeño

Voto Joven

Wanda Cedeño is a Venezuelan human rights defender and the National Coordinator of ''Voto Joven'', an organisation pushing for a strong and pluralistic democracy in Venezuela.

Wanda Cedeño

Voto Joven

Twitter

 

Who is Wanda?

 

Wanda Cedeño is a Venezuelan human rights defender and the National Coordinator of ”Voto Joven”, an organisation pushing for a strong and pluralistic democracy in Venezuela.  

 

More specifically, Wanda encourages Venezuelan youth and women to exercise their civil and political rights and works to defend them. In doing so, she brings visibility to serious cases of human rights violations against young people and women and strengthens their leadership to achieve greater diverse representation in discussion and decision-making spaces. 

 

Why is the FFM on Venezuela important for her vital work?

 

The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) has and continues to play an essential protective and preventative role in Venezuela particularly with the upcoming electoral processes. 

 

The Mission is key to documenting the State’s refusal to comply with the right to an identity for young migrants the political persecution of young people and women and how this limits the exercise of their civil rights.

#LetTheMissionContinue

Take Action: Call on States to support the resolution

#LetTheMissionContinue

Call on your government to support the resolution renewing the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela:

 

• If your State is part of the Core Group (Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay and Peru), call on them to ensure a strong resolution

 

• If your State is a member of the Human Rights Council, call on them to co-sponsor and to vote in favour of the resolution

 

• If your State is an observer State, call on them to co-sponsor the resolution

 

 

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HRC51 | ISHR and FundaRedes statement on the work of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela

Key numbers

Since its establishment the Fact-Finding Mission has been investigating alleged human rights abuses in Venezuela

• 183

  detentions of perceived or real government opponents that took place between 2014 and August 2021 analysed

• 177

  interviews held, including 60 interviews with legal representatives of victims

• 86

  judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers interviewed

What you need to know about the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela

What is the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela?

The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was established by the Human Rights Council on 27 September 2019 through resolution 42/25 and renewed in 2020 for two years through resolution 45/20.  It was established to assess alleged human rights violations committed in the country since 2014.

More precisely, the FFM was mandated to:

• investigate gross violations of human rights, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including those involving sexual and gender-based violence, committed since 2014
• help to combat impunity and ensure full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims
• present oral updates on its work during an interactive dialogue at the 46^th and 49^th sessions of the Council; and,
• To prepare written reports on its findings to be presented to the Council during interactive dialogues at its 48^th and 51^st sessions.

You can find out more information on OHCHR’s website.

Why should the mandate be renewed?

The FFM was established to unify efforts in the fight for justice for victims and to serve as a deterrent to further human rights violations and possible atrocity crimes. Renewing its mandate would allow the FFM to continue gathering evidence of serious, ongoing human rights violations. It would be a further step towards establishing accountability for the terrible suffering of the Venezuelan people since 2014. It would also send a clear message to perpetrators that, sooner or later, they will have to answer for the crimes they are committing.

As long as justice cannot be obtained internally in Venezuela, due to obstacles carefully documented by the FFM in its report on the lack of judicial independence, and as long as perpetrators, at all levels, continue to evade investigation and accountability, the FFM remains a unique and critical tool in laying the foundations for truth, justice, reparations, and protection for victims, survivors and their families, as well as the general population.

The FFM has documented hundreds of cases, identified patterns of crimes under international law, and established a list of people whose participation should be investigated by credible judicial authorities.

Current and former human rights violations remain to be documented on this matter. The human rights violations reported by the FFM are a reflection of how the human rights crisis persists in Venezuela.

What additional work could the FFM do?

Based on the mandate already established, the FFM could deepen its investigation, (i) with an emphasis on various groups in situations of vulnerability, including women, children, and Indigenous peoples, and (ii) taking into consideration the specific conditions and circumstances of certain geographic regions heavily affected by violence. The FFM could further be mandated to raise early warnings of further deterioration of the human rights situation, in particular ahead of the elections scheduled for 2024 and 2025. Similar HRC-investigative bodies, including for Burundi, South Sudan and Myanmar, have conducted similar assessments to provide early warning information about the recurrence of atrocity crimes.

Additional campaign resources

Faced with unrelenting threats, Venezuelan human rights defenders will continue to rely on the support of a UN-led mission

States at the UN Human Rights Council have voted to renew the mandate of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Venezuela (FFM) for another two years, ensuring the continuation of a mechanism that has become central to the work of human rights defenders. It has also extended the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to report to the Council.

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UN mechanisms should remain at the heart of foreign policy on Venezuela

In 2019, a group of largely Latin American states led a successful bid for the United Nations to establish an independent investigative mechanism on Venezuela in response to the human rights crisis in the country. During these years, the Mission has been a key mechanism in a system of complementary international bodies providing a vision of the change needed to eradicate impunity and prevent further systemic human rights violations. Now, a few weeks off the expiration of the Mission’s mandate, States in the region must again take leadership of a process to ensure its preventative work continues in particular with the uncertainty of a Presidential electoral period looming.

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Crimes against humanity continue in Venezuela say UN experts, naming perpetrators

In Venezuela it is government policy to torture dissents, the UN mission of experts on Venezuela told the world two years ago. These violations, amounting to likely crimes against humanity, continue. In their latest report the experts dive deeper into the nature of the crimes, who the victims are and names perpetrators. This morning this report goes before the Human Rights Council.

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Joint press conference

Over 125 Venezuelean and international organisations expressed their concern about the continuing human rights violations in Venezuela and called on the UN Human Rights Council to renew the Fact Finding Mission (FFM) on Venezuela at its upcoming September session.

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