REPORT | CDJ: Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Venezuela
Centro para los Defensores y la Justicia (CDJ) | Venezuela | October, 2021
Centro para los Defensores y la Justicia (CDJ), documented 73 attacks and security incidents during the month of October 2021 in Venezuela.
The Policy of Criminalization, repression, and social control exercised by the Venezuelan State escalates. October reflected that those in the first line of action promoting, defending, and demanding human rights in the country continue to face a hostile context that exposes them to serious risks.
The restrictions on civic and democratic space, the consequences of the Complex Humanitarian Emergency, and the increase in institutional violence continue to affect the free exercise of activities of a humanitarian nature or in the field of human rights.
The use of the Internal Enemy Logic in Venezuela represents the starting point for the commission attacks against defenders and civil society organizations. Hate speech, discrediting, and calls of violence acts have led to an increase in violence against the human rights movement in the country.
The risks to which those who defend human rights are exposed, added to impunity for human rights violations and the lack of guarantees or effective public policies for the promotion and protection of their work, is contrary to the international obligations of the State, which systematically violates the rights to free association, expression, opinion and defense of human rights.
In order to advance in solving the social, political, and human rights crisis existing in the country, it is essential to build propitious and safe environments for the promotion, defense, and demand of rights, for these reasons we insist on the need to incorporate the Human rights perspective in the processes of dialogue and negotiation between political sectors, that are currently underway.
In order to guarantee the recovery of Democracy and the rule of law, the documentation, denunciation, visibility, and accompaniment actions must be promoted and respected without any type of retaliation.
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