UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2019) The United Nations Human Rights Council had appointed three members of the Fact-finding Mission on Venezuela tasked with assessing rights violations in the country, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a press release on Monday.
On September 27, the Council adopted a resolution calling to immediately send an international mission to the Bolivar Republic for one year to investigate allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions and torture among other abuses committed since 2014.
"The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Coly Seck (Senegal), announced today the appointment of Marta Valinas (Portugal), Francisco Cox Vial (Chile) and Paul Seils (Ireland), to serve as the three members of the Fact-finding Mission on Venezuela," the release said. "Ms. Valinas will serve as Chair of the Mission."
According to the release, the three members will convene in the next weeks to decide on their strategy, methodology and fact-finding approach while accomplishing the mandate.
The mission plans to present its findings to the Human Rights Council's forty-fifth session in September 2020.
Venezuela has been suffering from a severe political crisis since late January when US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido proclaimed himself interim president in a bid to oust the country's leader Nicolas Maduro from power. Some Western countries recognized Guaido, while Russia, China, Turkey and several other states firmly backed Maduro.
