Latest Disgrace at the UN: Election of Venezuela to Human Rights Council

By secret ballot on Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly elected 14 member states to join the 47-member UN Human Rights Council for three-year terms beginning on January 1, 2020. The abysmal human rights abusing Maduro regime in Venezuela, which received 105 favorable votes in the election, is one of them. It will be joined by other human rights abusing states such as Mauritania, Libya, and Sudan. According to the UN’s own membership criteria, these countries should have been summarily rejected. The fact that they each received a majority vote and will sit in judgment of other member states demonstrates yet again the moral depravity surrounding the misnamed Human Rights Council, from which the Trump administration rightly withdrew the U.S. last year.

"The election to the Human Rights Council of Maduro’s representative is a farce that further undermines the Council’s already frail credibility"

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement condemning the election of Venezuela to the Human Rights Council, which read in part:

“It is sadly no surprise that Maduro shamelessly sought a seat on the UN Human Rights Council in an effort to block any limit to his repressive control of the Venezuelan people. What is truly tragic, however, is that other nations voted to give Maduro’s representative for Venezuela a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. This is a harsh blow not just against the victims of the Venezuelan regime, but also against the cause of human rights around the world…The election to the Human Rights Council of Maduro’s representative is a farce that further undermines the Council’s already frail credibility.”

Human rights activists, who had tried unsuccessfully to persuade UN member states to reject Venezuela’s membership bid, were livid. "Electing the oppressive Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro to a human rights council is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s absurd, immoral and offensive.” Philippe Bolopion, deputy director for global advocacy of Human Rights Watch remarked that “Venezuela’s undeserved and narrow election to the UN Human Rights Council is a slap in the face to the country’s countless victims who’ve been tortured and murdered by government forces, as well as the millions who have fled largely because of a humanitarian emergency the government unleashed.” Venezuela’s election to the Human Rights Council occurred less than a month after the Human Rights Council passed a resolution strongly condemning “all violations and abuses of international human rights law in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela… including the excessive use of force against peaceful protests, the excessive use of force during security operations, arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances by security forces.” The resolution established an independent international fact-finding mission “to investigate extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment since 2014 with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims.”

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Venezuela opposed resolutions that spoke out for victims of human rights violations by Iran, North Korea, Russia and Syria

What was Venezuela’s response to calls for cooperation by the Human Rights Council it is about to join? Jorge Valero, Venezuela's UN ambassador, called the Human Rights Council resolution a "hostile initiative" and said Venezuela would not cooperate. "The imposition of an additional monitoring mechanism will never receive the consent of my country," Ambassador Valero said in a stern rebuke to the council. In addition to its own horrendous human rights record that it seeks to block the Human Rights Council from investigating in depth, the Venezuelan regime has an appalling voting record on human rights issues at the UN. According to a joint report published on October 11th by UN Watch, Human Rights Foundation and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, “Venezuela opposed resolutions that spoke out for victims of human rights violations by Iran, North Korea, Russia and Syria.” Such serial human rights abusers too often are able to exploit the various platforms provided by the UN, including the Human Rights Council, to run interference for each other and help each other evade accountability for their crimes.