UN Must Expel Maduro From Human Rights Council After Inquiry Finds 'Crimes Against Humanity'

In wake of today's findings by UN Human Rights Council investigators that Venezuela is guilty of "crimes against humanity," an independent non-governmental human rights group is now calling for the Maduro regime to be expelled from the 47-nation body immediately, a remedy contemplated in the council's founding charter, Resolution 60/251.

"It is morally unconscionable and logically absurd for the Maduro regime to remain a member of the UN's highest human rights body after its investigators have just presented detailed and horrifying evidence of systematic killing, torture, and sexual violence," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Swiss human rights organization.

"Faced now with clear evidence that the orders to commit atrocities came from the very top — from Nicolás Maduro and his senior political and security officials — the United Nations must act by invoking the provision for removing council members that commit gross and systematic human rights abuses."

"Led by former UN Security Council President Diego Arria, our campaign calling on the UN to expel Maduro from its top human rights body as already gathered more than 150,000 signatures. Regular citizens in Venezuela and around the globe are sending a message to the United Nations that it can no longer allow the Maduro regime to cast a shadow on the reputation of the world's highest human rights body."

Role of UN Watch

The resolution that created the inquiry that produced today's report came in wake of a decade-long campaign by UN Watch and its allies to hold the Venezuela regime to account for its gross abuses, as summarized below.

"We welcome today's strong UN report, but let us acknowledge that it's very late. If only the UN had acted years ago — when we sounded the alarm as these gross violations began — perhaps the lives of millions forced into hunger and exile could have been spared."

© Scoop Media