June 7, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
We were alarmed to hear reports of harassment by representatives of the Venezuelan government against Venezuelan civil society participants in an event we co-hosted this week in Geneva to highlight the horrific human rights abuses by the Venezuelan authorities.
That these actions took place on the margins of the Human Rights Council is a horrible irony and an insult to the institution and to the brave men and women everywhere who are standing up for their human rights and dignity. These thuggish actions are precisely the type of behavior that make Venezuela’s membership on the Council absurd. This repression is ruining what was once a stable, prosperous democracy. It cannot be tolerated.
###