Caracas Chronicles

The core issue of human rights in Venezuela, specially economic, social and cultural ones, will be reviewed in Geneva in the next two days, as the B.R. of V. will present how it’s applying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

As expected, there are conflicting views on how Venezuela is doing on these matters. On one side, the Venezuelan State. In the other, independent NGOs who will make their cases in the Palais Wilson, where all UN human rights bodies gather and work. If you want to follow the review in detail, you can visit the Examen ONU Venezuela Twitter account and blog for more information.

But this isn’t the only test made recently by the United Nations to our country: Case in point, threatening to downgrade the role of our People’s Ombudsman.

A UN sub-committee made public their findings over the actions of the institution, and found that both its actions and omissions put into question the impartiality and independence of such authority. Current Ombudsman Tarek William Saab was given a one-year notice to make major changes, or it will lose its UN voice and vote privileges.

This UN report confirms what other reports were already saying: the Ombudsman is working for the State instead of the Venezuelan people. Will Mr. William Saab change things? I doubt it by taking in consideration his personal career, the questionable way he was named into office, or even what his living room used to look like.

But the issue of human rights continue to be of the highest interest at home and abroad. Now more than ever when there are some human rights activists that are either being incarcerated, spied upon or publicly harassed.