MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

ICC Chief Prosecutor addresses Venezuela's human rights crisis

Khan stressed “the need to protect the rights of civilians, including children.”

International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan Monday demanded that Venezuelan authorities release all adolescents and other political prisoners held after protests erupted following the controversial July 28 elections where President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner despite failing to produce any documentation attesting thereto while the opposition Unitarian Democratic Platform (PUD) published the minutes of 83% of the voting stations proving that their candidate Edmundo González Urrutia had triumphed.

“After this year's elections, I insisted in my communications with Venezuela and in public statements on the need to protect the rights of civilians, including children, who must be released if they are detained for political reasons or anyone who was peacefully protesting,” said Khan during the opening session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute in The Hague.

“Venezuelans have the same right to justice as the families I met in Libya or in Bangladesh in the last two weeks. This is as basic as it gets. But it is worth underlining,” he added.

“Complementarity cannot be a never-ending story. I have not seen the concrete implementation of laws and practices in Venezuela that I expected. That is why I want to make it clear that the ball is in Venezuela's court. The path of complementarity is running out of the road,” the prosecutor also pointed out while noting that his office's investigations into crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela are moving forward “without delay.”

Khan also urged Maduro's regime to allow representatives of the High Commissioner for Human Rights's office into the country “as I had previously been promised in writing.”

The ICC has for several years now been investigating alleged crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the government in Venezuela in 2017, during opposition protests in which more than 100 people were killed. In addition, “we are closely following current developments in Venezuela following the presidential elections of July 28, 2024, and confirms that it is independently and impartially analyzing information transmitted to it on allegations of crimes that may fall within the jurisdiction of the Court,” Khan's office said last September.

Last Friday, the NGO Foro Penal, which leads the defense of political prisoners in Venezuela, said that 1,903 people remain imprisoned for dissenting from the government, most of them after the July 28 elections.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado called on Venezuelans, from wherever they are, to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to act “now” so that there is “justice.” Machado celebrated Khan's stance on Venezuela and highlighted the importance of protests. Through postings on social media, Machado described Khan's move as “very significant” because it reflects an international recognition of the human rights crisis in the country. “Khan reaffirmed that investigations are still active and insisted on the need to protect the rights of Venezuelans and to release political prisoners, especially children and young people imprisoned after July 28,” Machado wrote.