{"id":81513,"date":"2026-01-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/venezuela-un-independent-investigators-call-for-immediate-release-of-all-political-prisoners\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:00:00","slug":"venezuela-un-independent-investigators-call-for-immediate-release-of-all-political-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=81513","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela: UN independent investigators call for immediate release of all political prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cAny step that restores liberty to individuals who have been arbitrarily detained is significant for those concerned and for their families,\u201d independent UN human rights investigators\u00a0said in a press release on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Human Rights Council-mandated\u00a0Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela estimates that there are around 800 political prisoners in the country and said the partial release fell short of the Government\u2019s human rights obligations for their immediate and unconditional release.<\/p>\n<p>The move comes as the country is adapting to new leadership under Acting President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez. The UN human rights office (OHCHR)\u00a0has called on the Venezuelan authorities and the United States to ensure full respect for international law and has expressed concern over further militarisation in the country.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u2018A tool of repression\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The fact-finding mission has extensively documented what it characterised as the widespread and systematic use of arbitrary detention as a tool of repression and reiterated its call for the \u2018immediate and unconditional\u2019 release of all political prisoners.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The experts also urged authorities to provide public information about prisoners and bring detention conditions in line with international law, including by immediately halting torture and cruel treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Relatives must be provided with clear and timely information about the fate, whereabouts, and legal status of their loved ones, as well as guaranteed access and regular visits<\/strong>,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators said they had received information about armed <em>colectivos<\/em>, or Government-backed armed groups, who have been reportedly patrolling cities and intimidating the population since the US operation, while fresh arrests have been made during the crisis for those expressing dissenting political opinions.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Past findings\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The independent fact-finding mission for Venezuela has cited multiple rights violations since it was established in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0its investigation into the country\u2019s contested presidential elections in 2024, the mission\u2019s findings included arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and torture.<\/p>\n<p>This mission said the authorities had failed to comply with recommendations to investigate human rights violations and implement measures to prevent their reoccurrence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Investigators\u00a0also found that during the peak of protests in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2024, officials of Venezuela\u2019s Bolivarian National Guard used excessive force, including the improper use of lethal and less-lethal weapons, among other violations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2026\/01\/1166745\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAny step that restores liberty to individuals who have been arbitrarily detained is significant for those&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1082,2730,2949,1331,1941,246,1807],"class_list":["post-81513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","tag-call","tag-independent","tag-investigators","tag-political","tag-prisoners","tag-release","tag-venezuela"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - 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