MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela left out of UN Human Rights Council

Venezuela is not qualified to sit on such a body, many NGOs agreed

Venezuela has been voted out of the 47-member UN Human Rights Council while starting next year Chile and Costa Rica will join the group which also features Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, and Paraguay from Latin America.

Chile's candidacy obtained 144 votes, Costa Rica's 134, and Venezuela's 88 as 14 new members of the Geneva-based body for the 2023-2025 period were elected.
Venezuela was up for re-election, but numerous human rights groups had called for a vote against it because of the Nicolás Maduro government's record on the matter.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Director Louis Charbonneau welcomed the General Assembly's decision and recalled that there is evidence that Maduro and other high-ranking officials may be responsible for crimes against humanity.

“A government facing these kinds of accusations should not sit in the highest UN rights body,” Charbonneau said.

The UN Independent International Mission to Venezuela last month accused Venezuela's civilian and military intelligence of crimes against humanity to curb political dissent through the torture of people in detention centers.

“Venezuela's vindictive targeting of government critics makes the country ineligible for membership of the UN's top human rights body,” Louis Charbonneau said in a statement last week.

Human Rights Council member countries are elected for 3-year terms, and since its creation has often been criticized for accommodating states with dubious records.

The NGO UN Watch had also considered that electing Venezuela would be “a slap in the face to the millions of Venezuelans suffering from human rights abuses and the millions more who were forced to flee this failed state.”

In a highly unusual move, the UN General Assembly expelled Russia from the Human Rights Council in April this year in response to the atrocities committed during its invasion of Ukraine.