Civil society spoke of the ongoing human rights crisis in Venezuela this week at the Council making evident that, despite Venezuela’s best efforts to denounce the Fact-Finding Mission, the Mission’s work and that of OHCHR are absolutely essential to victims of violations.
On 22 and 23 March 2023, the Human Rights Council held a general debate on human rights situations requiring the Council’s attention. States and NGOs spoke, and the High Commissioner spoke on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They drew the Council’s attention to a number of country situations of concern. ISHR delivered a statement, highlighting the human rights situation in four countries: Burkina Faso, Colombia, El Salvador, and Saudi Arabia.
Olnar Ortiz Bolívar and Alexandra Lezama, human rights defenders from Venezuela, are attending the Human Rights Council 52nd session, where the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela will present an oral update on the human rights situation in the country.
Alexandra Lezama is a human rights defender from Venezuela who came to Geneva to expose the facts and consequences of illegal mining and the contamination of the environment in the State of Bolívar.
Olnar is an indigenous human rights defender from Venezuela coming to Geneva to deliver important messages to the international community for the preservation of the Amazon and ancestral lands.
Human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity have been carried out in Nicaragua, a group of UN independent experts have told the Human Rights Council. To investigate these crimes fully, the Colectivo 46/2 coalition calls for the two-years renewal of UN Human Rights Council resolution on Nicaragua.
Alexandra Salazar is a human rights defender from Nicaragua, working for the organisation Unidad de Defensa Jurídica (UDJ), which has been supporting political prisoners in the country since 2018.
ISHR and partners called for government-wide reforms in a third-party intervention in a case where the country’s highest court will analyse the general situation of human rights defenders in Colombia.
Two days before the arrival of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to Venezuela, the National Assembly held a first reading of a draft law that, if passed, would criminalise the work of defenders, further shrinking the space they have to operate. States must speak up for human rights defenders and against this initiative!
As protests continue across Peru and at least 50 lie dead, States have called on Peru to stop the use of excessive force to quell unrest and to respect the rights of those exercising fundamental freedoms.
