UN rights chief warns of deepening repression in Venezuela, rising toll in Ukraine | EUROtoday

Presenting oral updates to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk mentioned the state of affairs in Venezuela has not improved since his final briefing in June.

“The crackdown on civic space has intensified, suffocating people’s freedoms,” Mr. Türk mentioned, pointing to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, alongside deepening social and financial hardship.

He mentioned just lately adopted laws granted the Government expanded emergency powers primarily based on perceived exterior threats, however famous the textual content stays unpublished – shielding the authorities from scrutiny.

Increasing militarisation

Public life, Mr. Türk warned, is changing into more and more militarised, heightening the chance of violence in a society grappling with excessive ranges of crime.

His Office, OHCHR, has obtained studies of coerced enlistment into the Bolivarian Militia, together with of adolescents and older individuals, in addition to accounts that authorities are encouraging residents to report on relations and neighbours by means of a State-sponsored cell app.

“Such policies breed fear, mistrust, and self-censorship,” he mentioned.

Journalists, human rights defenders, opposition figures and humanitarian employees proceed to face threats, harassment and the chance of arbitrary detention, Mr. Türk added, driving many into exile.

“When human rights defenders and journalists leave, truth and accountability leave with them,” he warned.

Detained for exercising civil rights

The High Commissioner voiced grave concern over detention circumstances, citing persistent shortages of meals and drugs and denial of household visits, impacting detainees’ bodily and psychological well being – with deadly ends in some circumstances.

While noting the discharge of not less than 51 detainees since June, he urged the unconditional launch of all these arbitrarily detained only for exercising their civil rights and an finish to enforced disappearances and incommunicado detention.

He warned that makes an attempt to strip opposition figures of their nationality violates worldwide legislation.

Ukraine: Silence the weapons now

Turning to Ukraine, the High Commissioner mentioned that almost 4 years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, civilians are going through intensifying hurt, with a 24 per cent rise in casualties in contrast with final yr, largely on account of expanded missile and drone assaults by Moscow.

“No part of the country is safe,” he mentioned, citing nationwide strikes on vitality infrastructure which have left thousands and thousands with out energy, heating and water as winter units in.

Mr. Türk condemned extrajudicial executions, torture and sexual violence towards prisoners of struggle and urged each Russia and Ukraine to uphold worldwide legislation, stressing that accountability stays important.

“They need the silencing of the guns,” he underscored.