IACHR Issues Report on Human Rights Situation in Venezuela (February 12, 2018) [1]
On February 12, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report on the human rights situation in Venezuela, entitled “Democratic Institutions, the Rule of Law and Human Rights in Venezuela [3].” According to the press release [4], the IACHR decided to draft the report due to the “marked deterioration in terms of the exercise of human rights in Venezuela, and the grave political, economic, and social crisis in the country.” The report analysis spans the last two years, with particular focus on 2017, and focuses on four main areas: “democratic institutions; social protest and freedom of expression; violence and citizen security; and economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights.” The IACHR states that Venezuela is in the midst of an institutional and human rights crisis, which stemmed from a number of issues, “notably the serious interferences by the executive and judicial branches in the legislative branch.” The Commission makes seventy-six recommendations to the state to address these problems and notes that its main concerns relate to “the Venezuelan people, who are suffering the grave consequences of this crisis at every level, with serious negative impacts on their civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights.”