Experts urge Venezuela to comply with international law to prevent irreparable harm to victims of enforced disappearance

February 28, 2025

Geneva/Washington, DC—Independent experts* today urged the Government of Venezuela to determine the fate and whereabouts of victims of enforced disappearance in the context of the presidential elections in July 2024, and during and after the presidential inauguration in January 2025.

"Faced with biased and dysfunctional domestic institutions, victims are increasingly turning to international mechanisms to uncover the truth about the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones, prevent any irreparable harm to their life and personal integrity and to seek redress," the experts said.

They stressed that they had received repeated allegations from relatives, lawyers and civil society organisations seeking to learn the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones and clients that complaints and habeas corpus applications were not being processed, and sometimes not even accepted.

"The increased use of enforced disappearance as a weapon to silence members of the opposition, those perceived as such, pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders, is intended to have a chilling effect on society as a whole and is fuelled by widespread impunity and selective justice," the experts said. They noted that previous allegations made to the Government describe the systematic use of so-called "short-term enforced disappearances" since the pre-election process, which continue to take place in the country.

"State authorities who detain individuals and refuse to acknowledge that they are in custody or disclose their fate or whereabouts place them outside the protection of the law," the experts said. "Such acts constitute an enforced disappearance regardless of the duration of the detention or concealment," they underlined.

The independent experts urged the Government of Venezuela to comply with the precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), respond to the requests of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in accordance with its humanitarian mandate, provide information on the fate and whereabouts of persons currently forcibly disappeared by the State, and to sanction, prevent and eradicate this crime as a gross violation of human rights under international law.

The experts noted that the reports received disclose a widespread or systematic pattern of enforced disappearance, in the commission or concealment of which several Venezuelan authorities allegedly play a role, including the highest authorities in the Government, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN), the General Directorate of Military Counter-Intelligence (DGCIM), the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), the Bolivarian National Police (PNB), the Parachute Infantry Brigade, the State Police, the judiciary, the Public Defender's Office, and the Attorney General's Office, among others.

"Persons deprived of their liberty should be guaranteed the enjoyment of all fundamental legal safeguards," the experts said, "including the right to communicate with and be visited by their relatives, lawyers or any other person of their choice, and to be brought before a competent judicial authority , within the statutory period, to determine the lawfulness of their detention".

"If the person deprived of liberty is a foreigner, they have the right to communicate with their consular authorities", they added.

The Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances is in contact with Venezuelan authorities about these issues.

*Experts: Gabriella Citroni (Chair-Rapporteur), Grażyna Baranowska (Vice-Chair) Aua Baldé, Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez and Mohammed Al-Obaidi, of the ; and The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) .

Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.

Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/

IACHR is a principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS) deriving its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 045/25

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