by Arnold Winkleried
Amnesty International
Amnesty International was founded in 1961 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for its efforts to promote global observance of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a worldwide movement of people acting on the conviction that governments must not deny individuals their basic Human Rights.
The group's mandate:
Amnesty International works to promote awareness of, and adherence to, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and other human rights accords.
It also pressures governments and non-governmental organizations to
* release all prisoners of conscience: people confined because of their beliefs
or because of their ethnic origin, sex, color or language, who have not used
or called for violence.
* give all prisoners whose cases have a political aspect a fair trial within
a reasonable time.
* abolish the death penalty, torture, and other cruel treatment of all prisoners.
* end all extrajudicial executions and "disappearances."
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela)
Head of state and government: Hugo Chávez Frías
Capital: Caracas
Population: 24.1 million
Official language: Spanish
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
Introduction
On 29 December 1999 a new Constitution came into force in Venezuela. Under the new Constitution, the name of the Republic of Venezuela was changed to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The 1999 Constitution is an important and significant step forward in terms of human rights. The provisions in the Constitution include the following: the clarification of the status of human rights treaties within the constitutional hierarchy and their relationship to domestic legislation; the obligation to investigate and punish those responsible for human rights violations and crimes against humanity, as well as the principle that there should be no statute of limitations for such offences; safeguards to ensure that human rights violations and crimes against humanity do not go unpunished; the principle that human rights violations and crimes against humanity should not be tried in military courts; the right to justice and redress; prohibition of the use, at all times and in all circumstances, of the death penalty, torture, enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention; the principle that the right to a fair trial, together with all fundamental human rights, cannot be revoked; and the banning of secret or special courts. The institution of Ombudsman was also established in the new Constitution and has already begun to function.
Amnesty International welcomes the significant advances made to bring Venezuela's legislation into line with international human rights standards. However, Amnesty International remains concerned about past human rights violations. The vast majority of such violations have still not been adequately investigated, the victims have not received proper redress and the perpetrators have gone unpunished.
In addition, Amnesty International remains seriously concerned about apparent recent extrajudicial executions, "disappearances" and torture and ill-treatment by the State security forces, as well as prison conditions and the refoulement of refugees. The organization is also concerned at the lack of adequate constitutional protection for the right of conscientious objection to military service.
The right to life
Article 58 of the 1961 Constitution, like article 43 of the 1999 Constitution, declared the right to life to be an "inviolable right". In recent years, however, Amnesty International has received dozens of reports of people dying at the hands of the security forces in circumstances suggesting that they were the victims of extrajudicial executions.
Sample case:
On 8 April 2000, Donis Ramírez was outside his home in the Nuevo Horizonte district of the capital, Caracas. Whilst talking to Geralt García, five officers of the Policía Metropolitana, Metropolitan Police, approached them and one of the policemen fired his gun in the air. Geralt García ran away, and as he ran, Donis Ramírez saw the police open fire, hitting him in the back. The police caught up with Geralt García in Araguaney street and shot him in the head several times, killing him. People living nearby heard the shots and looked out of their windows. When the police saw that they were being watched they opened fire, fatally wounding Guillermina del Carmen Colmenares. Donis Ramírez was threatened that if he complained about the shootings, they would kill him as well.
"Disappearances"
In December 1999, in the context of the rescue operations carried out following the Vargas' flooding, Amnesty International received information regarding possible "disappearances".
Sample Cases:
José Francisco Rivas Fernández, from the neighbourhood of Las Tucanas, was detained on 21 December 1999 at about 7.30 pm, by the army under the command of a sergeant, minutes after a curfew had come into force. According to witnesses he was also beaten by seven soldiers and taken away to an unknown destination. He had been sitting at the front door of a house used by the local branch of the political party, Acción Democrática , Democratic Action, where his family had taken shelter. The next day his parents were informed by the sergeant that he had been transferred into DISIP custody.
Roberto Javier Hernández Paz, from the neighbourhood of Tarigua, was detained at about 7.30 pm, on 23 December at his uncle's home by unidentified agents. The agents arrived in a yellow jeep which was identified by witnesses as a DISIP vehicle. The victim was reportedly shot by one of the agents before being driven away to an unknown destination. The DISIP has denied this accusation.
The right to personal integrity
Although article 46 of Venezuela's 1999 Constitution (article 60.3 of the 1961 Constitution) prohibits torture as well as cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, it is not categorized as an offence in the Venezuelan Penal Code.
Information has been gathered by Amnesty International over a period of several years indicating that the use of torture and ill-treatment is widespread. Except in a few isolated cases, members of State security bodies implicated in acts of torture or ill-treatment have not been subjected to investigation and criminal prosecution. Amnesty International has received numerous reports of cases in which people, often detained arbitrarily, claim to be victims of torture and/or ill-treatment. In many cases torture has been used as a means of political repression.
Sample Cases:
Wilfredo Alvarado, chairman of the Asociación Pro-Vivienda de Brisas del Turbio 1 , Brisas del Turbio 1 Pro-Housing Association, and a well-known community activist, was arbitrarily detained on 16 July 1997 in the city of Barquisimeto, Lara state, by members of the Guardia Nacional , National Guard. He was taken to a police station in the same street and he was held in a cell for half an hour before being transferred to the National Guard post in the zone of Lomas de León. Here, he was taken to a sports field where members of the National Guard reportedly chained him to a pipe and tied his hands. He was then hung upside down and kept hanging in this position until mid-day on 17 July. During that time he was tortured with electric shocks to the hands, beaten on the back and other parts of the body, and subjected to a mock execution. He was not told at any point why he had been detained. That same day he was transferred to Lara State police station in Barquisimeto where he remained until 22 July. A complaint against members of the National Guard responsible for the arrest and torture of Wilfredo Alvarado was opened. He continued receiving death threats in an attempt to deter him from pursuing the case. Amnesty International has received no reports that those responsible for the torture of Wilfredo Alvarado had been brought to justice.
In August 1999 Ronny Yosmar Aquino and Alexis Medina, two transgendered friends, were detained without a judicial order in the city of Valencia, Carabobo state. They were reportedly forced to undress in the street and severely beaten. They were then held in incommunicado detention without access to a lawyer, doctor or their families. The detentions took place in the context of a campaign of intimidation directed at the transgendered community, during which José Luis Nieves was fatally shot on 29 July while recovering from wounds inflicted in an earlier shooting by a state police officer.
Refugees
As stated by the UN Committee on Human Rights, the right of refugees not to be forcibly returned to their country of origin , the guarantee of non refoulement, implicit in article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is not duly protected under Venezuelan law.
During the month of June 1999, about 3,700 Colombians , including women and children, who, fearing for their lives and physical safety, fled from the violence arising from the armed conflict in the Catatumbo region of Colombia, crossed the Colombia-Venezuela border into the Venezuelan state of Zulia in search of protection and security.
Approximately 1,100 of those people were also returned to Colombia against their will. According to numerous independent sources, appropriate asylum procedures were not followed in order to adequately assess the situation of any of the 3,700 Colombians fleeing the violence in their country.
Under the December 1999 Venezuelan Constitution, the right to asylum and refuge is expressly protected. Transitional provision No. 4 in the Constitution authorizes the National Assembly to pass a basic law on refugees and asylum-seekers. This is an opportunity for the Venezuelan authorities to ensure that the principle of non refoulement is endowed with adequate legal safeguards.
Prison conditions
By the end of January 2000, Venezuela had a prison population of some 14,000 inmates. Of the total number of prisoners, 44% had been sentenced and 56% were waiting to be tried and/or sentenced.
Prison conditions continue to be extremely harsh, often amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Endemic violence within the Venezuelan prison system is an ongoing problem. Serious overcrowding, appalling sanitary conditions, inadequate food and insufficient provision of medical care and rehabilitation programs are still features of Venezuelan prisons and have often been the cause of protests by inmates over the last few years.
In 1999, the former government of President Hugo Chávez publicly acknowledged the serious state of Venezuelan prisons and said that his administration was committed to solving the problem. The new Código Orgánico Procesal Penal , Basic Code of Criminal Procedures, in force since 1 July 1999, allowed for a significant reduction in overcrowding in some prisons, as well as a reduction in the numbers of people being held in preventive detention. Despite these improvements, the physical conditions and lack of basic services faced by many prisoners continue to be poor. Dozens of prisoners are reported to have died as a result of deplorable sanitary conditions and inadequate medical care. To that must be added the endemic climate of violence which exists inside the prisons and which Amnesty International believes is in large measure due to the persistent problems of overcrowding, inmate-on-inmate and guards-on-inmate violence and the corruption prevalent in many of the penitentiary establishments.
Criminal Proceedings in Military Courts
The fact that members of the military implicated in human rights violations have been subject to the jurisdiction of military courts has historically been one of the factors contributing to impunity in Venezuela. Amnesty International considers that the military justice system has systematically failed to ensure impartial investigations and to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. The UN Committee for Human Rights recommended in 1992 that Venezuela "should see to it that all members of the armed forces or the police who have committed violations of the rights guaranteed by the ICCPR are tried and punished by civilian courts".
Conscientious Objection
The 1999 Venezuelan Constitution, in its article 61, guarantees the right to freedom of conscience. Nevertheless, the same clause goes on to impose restrictions on this right.
"Article 61. Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience and to give expression to it except when, in doing so, the personality is affected and rituals which constitute an offence are carried out. Conscientious objection may not be invoked to avoid obeying laws or to prevent others from obeying them or from exercising their rights."
In two decisions on individual cases, as well as in its observations on periodic reports submitted by States, the UN Committee on Human Rights has reiterated that conscientious objection is a right protected under article 18 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Individual letter-writing action
Michelle Paz was a transgender activist who was murdered in Valencia in January 2002, reportedly by police officers. Although Venezuelan law prohibits arbitrary arrest, Valencia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is at constant risk of harassment, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention by police. The commander of police in state of Carabobo has said that "homosexuals and prostitutes are to be ruled by a police code. They cannot move freely in the streets." Amnesty International fears that the transgender community in the state is being targeted for having publicly denounced human rights abuses committed by police. Amnesty International is calling for the government to investigate the murder of Michelle Paz and to take effective measures to protect transgender people in Carabobo state.
You can either write your own letter to the following address
Sr. Ramón Rodríguez Chacín
Ministro del Interior y Justicia
Ministerio del Interior y Justicia
Avenida Urdaneta, esquina de Platanal
Parroquia Candelaria, municipio Libertador Caracas
Venezuela
Or you can print and send out the letter below. (copy and paste it to your word processing program)
If you choose to write your own letter, please read the guidelines below. The first and most important rule is "Always be polite". letter writing guide
Please do not write after 31 May 2002. If you receive an answer to your letter, please e-mail the author of this article.
Sr. Ramón Rodríguez Chacín
Ministro del Interior y Justicia
Ministerio del Interior y Justicia
Avenida Urdaneta, esquina de Platanal
Parroquia Candelaria, municipio Libertador Caracas
Venezuela
Fax: 011-58-212-861-1967
Dear Minister:
I am concerned about threats, attacks and arrests perpetrated upon transgender people in the city of Valencia following the murder of a transgender activist, Michelle Paz. Ms. Paz (legal name Janny Paz) was murdered in Valencia on January 11, 2002, reportedly by police officers. In the days that followed, a man believed to be a police officer fired shots at another transgender activist, and two other transgender activists were arrested and held for several days at La Isabelica prison. On February 5, 2002, police officers belonging to the Comando de la Parroquia Catedral interrogated another transgender person regarding the whereabouts of Maury Oviedo, the president of the transgender organization Respeto a la Personalidad (Respect for the Personality). In October 2000, Ms. Oviedo had filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that a police officer had killed a prominent figure in the transgender community. After police issued a warrant for her arrest on February 8, 2002, Maury Oviedo reportedly went into hiding and now fears for her life.
As you may know, transgender identity refers to a compelling sense that's one's gender identity is not in conformity with the physiological characteristics of the sex one is born with. Although Venezuelan law prohibits arbitrary arrest, Valencia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is at constant risk of harassment, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention by police. The commander of police in Carabobo has said that "homosexuals and prostitutes are to be ruled by a police code. They cannot move freely in the streets." Police have held many people under administrative detention, and the transgender community believes it is being targeted for having publicly denounced human rights abuses committed by police.
I call upon you to ensure that there is a full and prompt investigation into the murder of Michelle Paz and that those responsible are brought to justice. I further ask you to take immediate and effective measures to guarantee the safety of transgender people in Carabobo state. I urge you to ensure that Maury Oviedo is not targeted by police solely on account of her sexual orientation or gender identity. Thank you.
Sincerely,
copy to:
Mr. Luis Herrera Marcano
Embassy of Venezuela
1099 30th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20007
via fax: 202-342-6820