CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela should release arbitrarily detained individuals and end torture, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Saturday at the tip of a visit to the country.
Turk arrived in Venezuela on Thursday and met with President Nicolas Maduro on Friday, along with Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, senior government officials, opposition figures and victims of human rights violations.
“In my meetings with the president and ministers, I called for all individuals who have been arbitrarily detained to be released,” Turk said on Saturday in an announcement.
Turk prolonged his call to governments world wide to release, pardon or grant amnesty to “all those arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental human rights.”
During his trip, Turk said he met with individuals who were arbitrarily detained and tortured.
Political Cartoons on World Leaders
In September, a U.N. independent international fact-finding mission on Venezuela said state security agencies have for years used sexual- and gender-based violence to torture and humiliate detainees.
“I used to be given commitments that torture complaints could be addressed decisively, fully investigated and people responsible dropped at justice,” Turk said.
The High Commissioner’s visit comes after Venezuela’s National Assembly on Tuesday passed the primary of two readings of a bill to control non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which has sparked criticism from advocacy groups.
On the topic, Turk said he reiterated to authorities the importance of guaranteeing civic space.
Probably the most recent Venezuela report by a U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, made last June, said Venezuela had taken some steps to strengthen the rule of law, but that there have been still concerns in regards to the lack of independence of the judicial system.
(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Vivian Sequera; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Josie Kao)
Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.
