Rights activists hail Venezuela’s departure from UN Human Rights Council
Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, and his vice-president, Nicolas Maduro, will be expelled from the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC) on Friday.
By Euronews
Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, and his vice-president, Nicolas Maduro, will be expelled from the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC) on Friday, sources close to the government have told Euronews.
According to a document dated March 25 this year, the Venezuelan leadership will have been expelled because of its “irregular practice of financing international terrorism.”
In another move to be announced on Friday, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Manuel Rosas said that the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, Roberto Bautista, is “suspended” in the wake of the suspension of his Venezuelan colleague Nicolas Maduro and that he has been recalled to Caracas.
HRC Secretary-General Pierre-Claver Ntahobe issued a statement on Friday on the decision to expel Chavez and Maduro, which said Venezuela’s leadership has “acted in clear violation of UN Human Rights Council Conventions, in disregard of international law and its own obligations.
“All people, parties and governments of the world, must be made aware of this unjust and intolerable act that contravenes the most basic principles and principles of international law and the human rights treaties”, Ntahobe added.
“The Venezuelan government is an embarrassment and, as such, all countries in the world should act to ensure it does not have any future in the UN,” he said.
The expulsion from the HRC comes on the same day that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) said it would take up the case of the Venezuelan ambassador in the country, Roberto Bautista, who has been accused by the government of defaming the country.
Venezuela’s government also denies the charge of defaming Venezuela, and insists that it has every right to take such action.
The government has already filed a case against the Venezuelan ambassador’s wife, who has claimed in Spain that she was intimidated and threatened by Mr Bautista during