Crisis in Venezuela bulletin N° 186 | Path to justice advances slowly, but surely

On September 16th, 2020, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela (FFM) indicated upon presenting its report that it has reasonable motives to believe that most of the documented crimes and violations were committed in the framework of a generalized and systematic attack directed against a civic population, with knowledge of the attack, according to a state policy or supporting it. Regarding these crimes, the FFM has reasonable motives to believe that crimes against humanity were committed in Venezuela within the examined period of time. It also pointed out some of those who are presumably responsible.

Later, in December 2020, the International Criminal Court Prosecutor reached a similar conclusion. She expressed that from the available information in the Preliminary Exam, there is a reasonable basis to believe that, at least since April 2017, civil authorities, members of the Armed Forces and individuals in favor of the government have committed crimes against humanity of incarceration or any other serious detention of physical liberty.

The ICC Prosecutor could announce soon that the Preliminary Exam has concluded and the investigation stage has initiated. This would constitute a big step in advancing towards the achievement of justice and that those who are responsible of the crimes are held accountable for their actions against the population.

In the context of the current crisis in Venezuela, human rights organizations maintain a continuous effort to record and document the systematic violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the population in order to accompany the victims and give visibility to these violations before the national and international community.

In this sense, the Crisis in Venezuela bulletin emerges as a weekly space in which, as a human rights movement, we bring together the situations that currently reflect the humanitarian crisis that Venezuela is going through.

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