Category: Statements

Image: A crowd carrying flags and blowing whistles gathers in an anti-government demonstration....

On April 27, a group of 19 Venezuelan and international organizations including WOLA issued a letter to President of Argentina Alberto Fernández to express concern over the situation of human rights defender Javier Tarazona, who has been arbitrarily detained for several months.

The undersigned human rights organizations welcome the recent announcement by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim A.A. Khan, on the establishment of a decentralized office of the ICC Prosecutor’s Office in Caracas, and the declaration that the Office will work jointly with important international allies.

We, a group of Venezuelan social and human rights organizations, reject the official decisions regarding the request to activate the constitutional right to hold a recall referendum of elected officials. This right is established in Article 72 of the Constitution, and its violation confirms the absence of democracy in the country and the inability for the population to exercise political rights without threat of reprisal.

On September 24, WOLA joined CEJIL, DPLF, and several other organizations in issuing a joint statement expressing concern around an administrative ruling that seeks to criminalize and restrict the critical work that civil society organizations are doing in Venezuela.

The civil society organizations that sign this statement reiterate our rejection and demand the revocation of new Administrative Ruling No. 002-2021 for the Unified Registry of Obligated Subjects before the National Office Against Organized Crime and Terrorism Financing.