Maduro regime officials attack an unarmed citizen for protesting in Caracas
It starts this Monday 52nd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The human rights crisis Venezuela will be analyzed on March 21st and 22nd, while the Nicolas Maduro regime it will only be able to intervene as an “affected state” and not as a member of the Council after losing its seat by vote of the UN General Assembly.
On March 21, an oral report will be presented by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk At Location in Venezuela and on technical cooperation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), followed by an interactive dialogue.
Also the next day the Fact Finding Mission provide an oral report on their work. NGOs representing civil society will take part in both dialogues.
With that, the provisions of Resolution 51/29 Adopted by majority decision in Council and extending the mandate of the fact-finding mission to September 2024. The reports of the mission and of OHCHR they are discussed at the three annual meetings of the Council.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterressaid today that it’s becoming clearer every day that Human rights have been violated in Ukraine and other parts of the world through executions, torture, enforced disappearances and sexual violence.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk attend the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, February 27, 2023. Portal/Denis Balibouse
“Human rights abuses must be a wake-up call for all of us,” Guterres said in his opening address at the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which began with the 75 them.
The Portuguese asked countries to ensure that they revive this text and implement the rights recognized in it to face the new challenges of the world.
“Human rights are not a luxury to be put aside until we find solutions to the problems of the rest of the world: you are the solution to them,” said the Secretary-General.
Guterres referred to the millions of people who had to leave their homes around the world War, violence and human rights violations.
The UN Secretary-General identified the persecution of people because of their religious belief, their skin color, their world view, their membership in linguistic, ethnic or cultural minorities as well as their sexual orientation and their gender as human rights problems.
Guterres also noted that inequalities between societies are growing and becoming increasingly divisive, warning countries against misusing new technologies that could leave “a legacy of misinformation and lies for future generations”.
Instead, she welcomed the progress made over the year twentieth century and in the first decades of XXI centuryespecially in terms of eradicating poverty, increasing life expectancy and literacy among the people
In this context, the leader of the United Nations recognized the role of the Human Rights Council in this framework and congratulated High Commissioner Volker Türk and his two predecessors for their work, Zeid bin Ra’ad al Hussein and Michelle Bachelet.
Meanwhile, the President of Colombia, Gustav Petrotoday called for the strengthening of the international human rights system and guaranteed his government’s full cooperation with the mechanisms set up by the United Nations to monitor respect for fundamental rights and freedoms in countries.
Gustav Petro. (presidency)
In a telematic speech transmitted during the opening of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Petro called for the third World Conference on Human Rights to be convened as a follow-up to the first two held in 1968 (Tehran, Iran) and 1993 (Vienna, Austria). .
He Colombian President He thought it appropriate for the UN to convene a third meeting for either 2025 or 2026, after recalling that this year is also a special year as it marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The President pledged that Colombia would reinforce its commitment to human rights through measures such as ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (in progress in Congress) and appreciation for the UN Committee against Enforced Disappearances can receive individual complaints against the Colombian state.
He also stressed that his government is committed to putting into practice the open invitation to the various mechanisms that the UN has to monitor compliance with a wide range of individual and collective human rights.
“I would like to invite you about the urgent need to strengthen the human rights protection system in the world and to identify the main challenges and concrete measures,” Petro said before the world’s largest human rights forum.
At the national level, he ensured that the recommendations of the truth commission are a priority for your government, as well as those of Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in relation to the protection of social protest.
He announced that Colombia hopes to be a member of the Human Rights Council again in 2025-2027.
(With information from EFE)
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