Commissioner Rodrigo Escobar Gil.
Commissioners: Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Rapporteur for Venezuela; Rodrigo Escobar Gil, Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty, Moderator; Felipe Gonzalez, Rapporteur for Brazil, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, and Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families; Santiago A. Cantón (Sec. Ejecutivo CIDH) (previous Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression); Luz Patricia Mejia Guerrero, Chair (from Venezuela)
Participants: State of Venezuela: Germán Saltrón, IACHR; María Díaz, Advisor, Venezuela
Countries: Venezuela
Topics: Human Rights Situation in Venezuela
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is well on its way to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but has much room for improvement in the areas of civil and political rights, especially in terms of freedom of expression, political participation and protection of human rights defenders. These were the conclusions gained from the country’s update on its human rights situation at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on Tuesday, October 25, 2011.
Germán Saltrón, Venezuela’s representative to the IACHR, and advisor María Díaz began the hearing by presenting Venezuela’s MDG achievements, citing the fact that of the eight MDGs, Venezuela has already reached, or is close to reaching, the 2015 goals for seven of them. Over the past ten years, Venezuela has reduced the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty; it has extended universal primary education to eighty-five percent of the population; women and girls are proportionally represented in educational and political systems; infant mortality has been reduced to under three percent; anti-retroviral drugs are being provided to an ever-increasing number of HIV-positive Venezuelans; the government has undertaken constructive measures to protect the country’s biodiversity; and technology has been extended across the country. The only area in which Venezuela still needs to improve is maternal health.
The state went on to highlight these achievements in the broader context of how human rights and human rights violations are prioritized throughout the world. Saltrón argued that some countries have mistakenly focused on terrorism and violations of civil and political rights as the main human rights issues facing the world, while in reality the majority of human rights violations stem from extreme socioeconomic inequalities. While developed countries have not complied with their financial promises of development aid to lower-income nations, Venezuela has nonetheless taken significant strides in ensuring the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights by its citizenry.
Saltrón dedicated the second half of Venezuela’s presentation to criticizing the Inter-American Commission for unduly singling out Venezuela since the election of President Hugo Chávez in 1998. He argued that from 1977, when Venezuela ratified the American Convention on Human Rights, until Chávez’ election in 1998, innumerable human rights violations were occurring all over the country, especially during the two presidencies of Carlos Andrés Pérez. However, the IACHR only admitted four cases for review during this time, whereas since Chávez came to power, thirty-four cases have been admitted and another fifty-seven are under review. Saltrón also cited what Venezuela believes to be similarly disproportionate numbers for IACHR precautionary measures and provisional measures undertaken by the various rapporteurs. Finally, Saltrón strongly disagreed with the IACHR’s analysis of the human right situation in Venezuela as developed in its 2010 report, Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela, and once again argued that there was a conspiracy in the IACHR to negatively portray the human rights situation in his country now, when before Chávez was president the Commission turned a blind eye.
Commissioner Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Rapporteur for Venezuela, responded for the IACHR by lamenting the fact that he has not once been able to conduct a site visit to the country, despite repeated requests to do so. Venezuela is the only one of the thirty-five Organization of American States (OAS) member states that has not permitted the entrance of a rapporteur during Pinheiro’s tenure as commissioner from 2004 to the present. Had he been permitted to visit, Pinheiro contended, he would have been able to witness first-hand the advances that Venezuela has made in terms of economic, social, and cultural rights. However, Pinheiro stated that also as a result of his entry being barred, he has been left with grave concerns about legitimate freedom of expression and political participation in the country, as well as threats to human rights defenders. Without being able to conduct a site visit, the only information the IACHR has to assess the human rights situation in the country is that which comes from the Venezuelan state and that which comes from petitioners. Therefore, Pinheiro once again requested the opportunity to conduct an impartial evaluation. The Venezuelan state’s response to this request, however, was that the IACHR is not at all impartial, as had already been stated.
