On Friday, October 11, the Human Rights Council, with 23 votes in favor, renewed for two years the mandates of the Fact-Finding Mission and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Venezuela. As a result, at least until September 2026, both international bodies will continue to investigate, monitor and report on the crimes and serious violations that prevail in the country.
In the case of the Mission, its mandate was expressly extended to include human rights violations that occurred before, during and after the presidential elections in July 2024, and to the violence of armed groups known as “collectives.”
The renewal is not only a victory for the victims, relatives and defenders who have cried out for justice and truth in the midst of so much adversity, but it is a reminder to those most responsible and perpetrators that their crimes are imprescriptible and will not be forgotten, and that the international community will keep its attention on Venezuela as long as it does not begin to rebuild the democratic rule of law and ensure accountability and due reparations.
As a result of the context of unprecedented repression that the country is experiencing following the fraudulent declaration of Nicolás Maduro as president-elect, the Council asked the Office of the High Commissioner for an updated report before the end of 2024. Therefore, the State’s actions will have to be subject to international scrutiny once again in the year, on a date to be defined soon. As indicated by the organization Provea, this end-of-year report, together with the oral updates from both the Fact-Finding Mission and the High Commissioner in March 2025, is a response from the Council to closely follow the events in January 2025, when the new president is due to take office.
The Venezuelan crisis is thus marked by a continuous period of uncertainty and serious risks of violence associated with the political conflict and the intensification of state terrorism, one of the tensest moments of which may take place on an eventual definitive consummation of Nicolás Maduro as president. While this is true, it should not be ignored that the political-electoral conflict is only one of the dimensions of the complex humanitarian emergency that has lasted for almost a decade.
Venezuela remains mired in a humanitarian crisis that, like the recent electoral repression, is of an unprecedented nature, scale and severity. It should be remembered that the fourth measurement of the HUM Venezuela Complex Humanitarian Emergency Monitoring Report, with a view of the living conditions of the population from March 2022 to November 2023, concluded that 69.6% of the population lives in multidimensional poverty, with an average monthly income of $102.5, which barely covers 12.8% of a basic basket of essential goods and services. The income deficit to buy a basic food basket stood at 72.4%. In this regard, more than 40% of households used various strategies to obtain food, where livelihoods were exhausted, other essential expenses were reduced, and productive assets were sacrificed.
In terms of water and sanitation, 86% had to meet their water needs through alternative sources, as the deficiencies in the regular supply of the service through aqueducts were accentuated. Reports of signs of contaminated water increased from 73.7% to 82.5%, 12.5% of people had to drink unsafe water, and the proportion of people who did not use purification methods at home increased from 17% to 27%.
In terms of health, around 87.8% of people depend on the public health system to meet their health needs, 97.6% did not have financial protection, and 54.8% lacked the financial resources to cover health expenses. Approximately 72.4% of people who used the public health system did not find care, and 69.9% lost services because they were reported to be inoperative.
Finally, the data on basic education is no better. In the period evaluated, irregular attendance increased from 45.1% to 51.6%: 48.3% due to deficiencies in the education sector, 35.1% due to difficulties at home, and 16.6% due to environmental problems. 18.1% received less than 50 days of classes. 56.6% of children and adolescents did not receive PAE and 28.5% of those who had access did not receive food in sufficient quantity and of adequate quality.
The daily reality does not reflect improvements in any aspect. On the contrary, living conditions have been getting worse, thanks to the inefficiency and corruption of the government apparatus to care for its population, as well as the political repression that continues to leave the humanitarian needs of millions of people in the territory and of millions more who had to migrate as a result of the lack of essential social rights in the background. This means that the humanitarian crisis has not disappeared, it continues to worsen and possibly in the next few weeks we will have an updated report to account for this. The population cannot, and should not, wait for political times to receive the required protection.
AlertaVenezuela calls on the international community to continue advocating through diplomatic channels and using the tools provided by International Law to ensure that the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people is respected and that the population inside and outside the territory is protected in the meantime, which includes the adoption of coordinated measures that help alleviate the humanitarian crisis and the risks of persecution by the State.