Statement on Venezuela at the UN Human Rights Council

Venezuela

Distinguished delegates

The International Human Rights Association of American Minorities welcomes the enhanced cooperation of the Venezuelan government with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as evidenced by the visits to Venezuela of High Commissioner Volker Turk and his predecessor Michelle Bachelet.  Both have recognized the adverse impacts of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights by the Venezuelan people, impressions confirmed by the reports of the Special Rapporteur on UCM’s and International Order, who visited Venezuela in 2017 and 2021.

IHRAAM recognizes that UCM’s and financial blockades against Venezuela have resulted in thousands of deaths as documented by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the Advisor on the Millennium development Goals and SDG’s of three successive Secretary-Generals.

It is time to acknowledge that UCM’s are counter-productive and that far from encouraging the targeted country to open up, they generate emergency measures which entail retrogression in civil and political rights.

IHRAAM denounces the improper the use of the term “sanctions” by politicians and journalists, when they mean UCM’s.  The only legal sanctions are those imposed by the Security Council under Chapter VII. UCM’s constitute an illegal use of force prohibited in article 2(4) of the UN Charter. Moreover, the term “sanctions” implies that the country imposing UCM’s has legal and moral authority to do so, which is not the case.  UCM’s constitute illegal hybrid warfare and must be abolished.

I thank you.

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