Rights activists hail Venezuela’s departure from UN Human Rights Council as ‘historic’ while others describe it as ‘the death of democracy’
The Democratic Union of Popular Forces, the main political party in Venezuela’s government, announced it had joined the opposition in a boycott of the Human Rights Council, days after its president announced the country would no longer take part.
‘Today, and on the 15th of April, we declare that the Democratic Union of Popular Forces has become a party of the opposition,’ said party spokesperson, Jorge Rodríguez.
‘I personally believe that it is the death of democracy in Venezuela. I believe that the Venezuelan people is going to have a new government, if this government will not present with a list of candidates to the elections.’
Democratic Unity, a coalition of opposition parties that supported the government of President Hugo Chávez, had joined with the opposition to nominate Venezuela’s first vice-presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski.
The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) has become an arena for the most acrimonious debates of the political right in the world
The announcement came after it became public on Wednesday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had told the country’s Ambassador to the UN, Luisa Ortega, to remove himself and six other members of the council and return to Venezuela on April 15, a day after he had said the group had become an ‘activist’ body.
It became clear after Wednesday night that the announcement of the government’s decision had been made in private meetings with diplomats over a series of phone calls.
‘The government of Venezuela has decided to leave the Council,’ Ortega said in a statement. ‘I want to reassure the staff of the UN that all the activities and decisions of the Council will not be affected by this decision.’
The Venezuelan ambassador arrived in New York on Wednesday and agreed to sign a letter of resignation on Thursday
Chávez announced the move after the UN human rights council’s secretary-general launched an investigation into his country’s human rights record and a report commissioned by the UN high commissioner on human rights called his government’s conduct in office ‘unacceptable’.
The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) has become an arena for the most acrimonious debates of the political right in the world.
But the country’s decision to join one of its biggest detractors, the Arab League, and its refusal
