Marta Valiñas, Chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, presented its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which covers the period from January 2020 to August this year.

The report, which was published last week, focused on two areas: the various “repression mechanisms” used by the State, and the need to monitor a new security force whose members include officers who allegedly were involved in crimes against humanity.

‘Repressive tactics’

“What we are witnessing is the accumulated impact of these repressive tactics which have given rise to a predominant environment of fear, mistrust and self-censorship. As a consequence, the fundamental pillars of civic and democratic fora have been seriously eroded in Venezuela,” said Mr. Valiñas, speaking in Spanish.

She warned that repressive measures are likely to increase in the run-up to the presidential elections next year.

During the reporting period, at least 58 persons were arbitrarily detained, according to the report.

They included trade union leaders, human rights defenders, members of non-governmental organizations, journalists, opposition party members, and others who voiced criticism of the Government of President Nicholas Maduro.

Arbitrary killings and torture

The Mission investigated nine deaths to determine if they were linked to detention, finding reasonable grounds to believe that five were arbitrary killings that could be attributed to the State authorities.

Furthermore, at least 14 individuals were forcibly disappeared for periods ranging from several hours up to 10 days.  The Mission documented 28 cases of torture or degrading treatment in official or clandestine places of detention, with sexual and gender-based violence being most prevalent.

Ms. Valiñas said these incidents represent a decrease over previous reporting periods, reflecting a shift in the political and human rights crisis in Venezuela.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the end of opposition protests, and subsequent mass arrests, torture and large-scale reprisals.  

Freedoms under attack

“Our conclusion is that in Venezuela, serious human rights violations continue, and that these violations are not isolated events. Rather, they reflect a policy of repressing dissent,” she said.

The Mission also investigated attempts against the freedoms of expression, assembly and peaceful association, and the right to participate in public life.  

“Numerous cases” of selective repression were documented, including against trade unionists, journalists, human rights defenders, political leaders, and their relatives. Key civil society institutions, political parties and the media have also been targeted.

New strategic force

The report also expressed concern over a new police body, the Directorate of Strategic and Tactical Actions (DAET), created in July 2022.

The Mission concluded that the DAET is a continuation of the disbanded Special Action Forces (FAES), which it had identified as one of the structures most involved in extrajudicial executions, among other gross human rights violations, in the context of fighting crime.  

Ms. Valiñas said 10 of the 15 top positions are held by former FAES leaders, “and these were already people who were named in former reports of our Mission because we believe that they have been involved in international crimes.”

She cited allegations around the new force’s involvement in operations last year that were linked to multiple assassinations and over 300 detentions.

“These actions were very similar to the strategies used by the Special Forces when they existed, including extrajudicial killings,” she said, calling for further investigation. 

The members of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) issued the appeal after concluding their first visit to the State of Palestine, conducted from 10 to 21 September.

Daniel Fink, who headed the delegation, said they received full cooperation from the Palestinian Authority to visit locations in the West Bank, “but we regret that, despite all efforts, we were unable to visit detention facilities in Gaza.” 

The Palestinian Authority has administrative control over the West Bank while the militant group Hamas rules the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli blockade for more than 15 years.

High-level meetings 

The delegation visited 18 detention places in different locations in the West Bank, including prisons, police stations, facilities of the security forces, a psychiatric hospital and a military detention centre.

Members met with high-level officials, including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior, who coordinates the National Team for Monitoring the State’s Commitments. 

They also held meetings with other State authorities, and the Independent Commission on Human Rights, involving its Gaza branch. 

Establish monitory mechanism 

The experts recalled that Palestine has been a party to the Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol since 2014 and 2017, respectively. 

States that ratify the Optional Protocol give the SPT the right to visit their places of detention and examine the treatment of people held there.

They said the Government has done much in the interim, pointing to recent positive relevant amendments to the penal code.

However, they remain concerned over the implementation of torture prevention measures during detention and the effective establishment of a monitory body, officially called the national preventive mechanism (NPM).

The delegation also engaged with entities working on drafting legislation related to the NPM and Mr. Fink expressed hope that their visit will prompt its swift formation.

“In particular, we look forward to seeing an independent body that can carry out its mandate in accordance with the State’s legal international obligations, including unannounced visits to any places of deprivation of liberty,” he added.

About UN experts

The SPT is composed of 25 independent and impartial experts from across the globe who monitor adherence to the Optional Protocol, which has been ratified by 93 countries.

They were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva, and are neither UN staff nor are they paid for their work.

Four members visited the State of Palestine, accompanied by two human rights officers from the SPT Secretariat.

The delegation will submit a confidential report to the Palestinian authority in the coming months, which they hope will be made public.  

Addressing the opening of the IAEA’s General Conference in Vienna on Monday, Mr. Grossi said that 53 missions mobilizing more than 100 agency staff have been deployed as part of a continued presence inside Ukraine’s five nuclear power plants.

These include the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, or ZNPP, on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, where Mr. Grossi said that the situation remained “very fragile”.

‘Courageous service’ by IAEA staff

The ZNPP is controlled by Russian forces but operated by its Ukrainian staff. It is Europe’s largest nuclear plant and the IAEA has been monitoring the situation there since the early days of the conflict.

In a message read out at the opening of the General Conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that he applauded the “courageous service” of IAEA personnel stationed at the plant. He pledged that the UN will continue to do “all it can” to ensure the safe rotation of experts operating across Ukraine’s five nuclear facilities.

Chad: Sudan refugee health crisis escalating warns WHO

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) has called for urgent funding support in the face of a growing health crisis in eastern Chad, where over 400,000 people have fled the brutal military civil war in Sudan during the past five months.

The Senior Advisor to WHO’s regional office for Africa, Dr Ramesh Krishnamurthy, stressed the need to “ramp up” interventions in the areas of primary healthcare, mental health, maternal and child health, as well as nutrition. 

WHO said on Sunday that in a recent screening in Chad, nearly 13,000 children under five were found to be acutely malnourished.

Hospital admissions of children with malnutrition have increased by more than half across the province of Ouaddaï, which is hosting more than 80 per cent of refugees from neighbouring Sudan.

In Ouaddaï, the UN health agency has continued to deliver critical aid to the town of Adré just a few hundred metres from the Sudanese border, working with partners to support the incoming refugees with health services, vaccination and medicines.

To date, WHO has delivered 80 metric tonnes of supplies to Adré, most recently handing over beds and mattresses to support medical and surgical care.

Reproductive rights must be respected in crises

States must ensure the right to sexual and reproductive health without discrimination, in particular in humanitarian crises, UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Monday.

The experts, who include the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng, warned of an “exacerbated” risk of violations of sexual and reproductive health rights in situations of emergency, humanitarian or conflict settings.

Women and girls are especially vulnerable to serious harm, the experts said, and urged countries to ensure access to modern contraceptive methods including emergency contraception, and access to legal and safe abortion.

They called for training for healthcare providers on safe abortion and aftercare, where resources are limited.

Welcoming decriminalisation

The experts also welcomed the “decriminalisation of abortion in some countries”. Earlier this month, Mexico’s Supreme Court abolished all federal criminal penalties for abortion and ruled that national laws prohibiting it were unconstitutional.

According to WHO, ensuring women and girls have access to safe, respectful and non-discriminatory abortion care is fundamental to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals relating to good health and well-being as well as gender equality.

WHO has also said that while contraceptive services are fundamental to health and human rights, over 200 million women in developing regions have an unmet need for contraception.