Image credit: UN via Flickr.
The United Nations on Monday announced that it has partially resumed its operations in Venezuela. The announcement was made by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, during his annual press conference in observance of International Human Rights Day.
According to Reuters, Türk revealed: “We have been able to resume partly our activities.” Türk added that he hoped that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) would be able to recommence “things that we have already done in the past,” including “visiting prisons, monitoring trials, and commenting on legislation,” as reported by press agency EFE.
In February of this year, the OHCHR was forced by Nicolás Maduro’s government to suspend its operations in Venezuela. Staff members were given 72 hours to leave the country, and Maduro’s government accused the organization of having a “colonialist, abusive, and violating attitude,” as well as alleging that it was involved in assassination and coup plots. Prior to its suspension, about a dozen foreign employees were working for the OHCHR in Venezuela.
Türk explained that, in spite of the expulsion of UN workers from Venezuela, the OHCHR “has been able to remain in contact with government authorities and with human rights defenders, civil society, and members of the opposition.”
Discussing the detention of political and civil society figures, which has reportedly increased since Maduro was re-elected in July, Türk said: “There have been some releases, but we want more. It is absolutely crucial, and we also hope that there will be a renewed focus on bringing together the different political actors to forge a future for the country.”
Türk’s announcement about the partial resumption of UN activities came a week after the Venezuelan government responded to a statement made by International Criminal Court prosecutor, Karim Khan.
Khan declared on December 2 that Venezuela “must let the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in, as had been previously promised to me, in writing.” He continued, “I have not seen the concrete implementation of laws, practices in Venezuela that I had hoped for,” adding, “The ball is in Venezuela’s court.”
The following day, the Venezuelan government issued its own statement, rejecting Khan’s observations. “Venezuela considers it worrying” that Khan had not been informed about the various measures it had adopted “at the domestic level” in order to improve “compliance with the commitments assumed under the Rome Statute, as well as those reached in the two memoranda of understanding signed with the Prosecutor,” read the statement, referencing the 1998 ICC statute that established core international crimes like genocide and war crimes.
Amongst these measures, the government claimed, was the resumption of the OHCHR’s activities in Venezuela, which had allegedly been approved in November.
