First of all, Happy New Year to everyone.
As you have seen, we are having some technical issues for this press briefing of the UN Information Service here in Geneva on today, Tuesday, 6th of January.
I'm really sorry for this.
I'm sorry for the delay, especially today as we are restarting our business.
But bear with us and at least you can hear what we can tell you today, what we can announce today.
First of all, let me just take the first minutes to inform you.
I mean, this has been a very loaded holiday period.
I know that you've been working a lot and covering lots of things.
And of course, I would like to start by saying that, as you have surely seen, the Director General of the UN office at Geneva has expressed his condolences to the victims of the terrible accident that that happened over the New Year's Eve and day in Montana.
And I also wanted to inform you that following some of the questions you've asked us, the UN flag in the Director General, in consultation with the host country authorities, has decided to fly the flag of the United Nations at AFMAST on Friday, 9th of January as a mark of respect for the victims of the fire, the tragic fire in Carmontana.
And we will probably open also a, a, a condolence book.
But just wanted to tell you because some of you had asked me whether we would do such a thing.
And we will, as we are here in Switzerland, our host country.
So that was just something I wanted to tell you.
Let's start with the briefing topic we have today, OHCHR Ravinez with us to tell us about the US intervention in Venezuela.
And about that, I would like to recall that the Secretary General has put out a statement on the 3rd of January when the event events unfolded.
And yesterday, as you know, there was a meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Venezuela.
The Secretary General's statement was read by Mrs De Carlo and he said that he was deeply concerned about the possible intensification of his stability in Venezuela, the potential impact on the region and the President's U.S.
military operation be set for how relations between and among states are conducted.
The Secretary General also added that he remains A deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the military intervention of the 3rd of January.
He highlighted that the Charter of the UN, the UN Charter enshrines the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political interdependence of any member state, and he said that it's possible to prevent a wider and more destructive conflagration.
He called the Northern Israel and actors to engage in an inclusive democratic dialogue in which all sectors of society can determine their future.
And he further urged Venezuela's neighbours and international community broadly to act in the spirit of solidarity and in adherence to the principles, laws and rules erected to promote peaceful coexistence.
The statement, the the remarks of the Secretary General read by USG Dicarlo have been distributed to you.
And this morning we have Ravina to tell us more on the side of the Human Rights Office.
Please, Ravina, thank you.
And let me take this opportunity to wish all of you in the room and online peaceful and helpful New Year and look forward to my team and I look forward to working with you very closely this year on the US intervention in Venezuela.
We are deeply worried about the situation in Venezuela following the US military operation over the weekend.
It is clear that the operation undermined A fundamental principle of international law that states must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
the US has justified its intervention on the grounds of the Venezuelan government's long standing and appalling human rights record.
But accountability for human rights violations cannot be achieved by unilateral military intervention in violation of international law.
The people of Venezuela deserve accountability through a fair victim centred process, as has been clear in the UN Human Rights Office's consistent reporting on the continued deterioration of the situation in Venezuela for about a decade.
The rights of the Venezuelan people have been violated for too long.
We fear that the current instability and further militarisation in the country resulting from the US intervention will only make the situation worse.
The state of emergency declared by the Venezuelan authorities that took effect on Saturday raises concerns as it authorises restrictions on free movement of people, the seizure of property necessary for National Defence and the suspension of the right to assembly and to protest, among other measures.
UN human rights chief Okoto calls on the US and the Venezuelan Party, as well as the international community to ensure full respect for international law, including human rights.
The future of Venezuela must be determined by the Venezuelan people alone with full respect for their human rights, including the right to self determination and sovereignty over their lives and their resources.
And I understand we also have the image now, which is good.
So I'll open the floor to questions now, if any in the room.
Ravina, I was wondering if you could say a little bit more about the, you said this undermined seems to have undermined international law in in what respect because this is claiming that this is a law enforcement operation.
Could you say something about their the way they are trying to legitimise this, this operation and if it actually does stand up in the face of international law?
Indeed, as the High Commissioner has said, this opera violates the fundamental principle of international law.
It violates the UN Charter.
This charter states that states must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
And this is what we are seeing now.
Using human rights arguments as a justification for this kind of military intervention is unacceptable.
The High Commissioner has said that.
He said yesterday in in in an opinion piece that he had published, that a narrative is emerging that seeks to justify the US military intervention as a response to the Maduro government's appalling human rights record.
But far from being a victory for human rights, this military intervention, which is in contravention of Venezuelan sovereignty and the UN Charter, damages the architecture of International Security, making every country less safe.
And no amount of deception or distraction can alter these facts.
I wonder if your office have talked with the government in the Venezuela government, with the new president and with the people of Venezuela, if you have any assessment of the situation, of the human rights situation or of the opinions of the government.
But we have not been in touch with, I mean, over the past few days, we have not been in touch with the government.
However, we are constantly in touch with civil society, human rights defenders, both both inside and outside the country.
And we're trying to establish what is happening on the ground.
Now, As you know, we were actually expelled from the country.
I'm trying to remember when that was.
I believe it was in February or March of last year.
And since for the past couple of months we have, we've had no one in the country.
We've been monitoring the situation from Panama.
So we are in touch with civil society.
We're trying to establish the facts on the ground.
As I said, we are worried about the establishment of this decree, the state of external commotion, because it authorises a lot of measures that could be instrumentalized to further suppress the human rights of the people of Venezuela.
And we're particularly concerned given the record that the government has in suppressing free speech, protest, freedom of assembly, using the pretext of national security.
Ravina, you you're saying you're calling on the United States to respect Venezuelan sovereignty.
But President Trump has made it clear that he's in control.
He's running the state, so they're not respecting it.
The administration has expressed its intention to take military action against other states, including potentially Greenland.
What action do you think the international community should be taking in response to these positions?
Thank you, Nick on on what action the international community should be taking.
I think I think it's really important that there is clarity.
Let us not pretend that this is an action taken in defence of human rights of anyone.
This is an action that was taken in contravention of international law and that is that is clear.
And the international community needs to come together with one voice to insist on that, to make that clear that this is an action that was in contravention of the international law that was set up by member states, the UN Charter that was set up by member states.
And this is a point that the the secretary general has also made.
And I'll repeat again what it says.
It says that states must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
And we are seeing, we have seen the use of force, and we are also seeing further threats.
That was stated yesterday by the spokesperson of the Secretary General.
It it, the question here is member states respecting and uphold the laws and the charter that they himself have put into play and not as a la carte menu, but a whole sorry.
I just on on the situation in Venezuela and who's who's governing.
This is where we have invoked the the right to self determination of the people of Venezuela.
The future of Venezuela must be determined by its people.
Yeah, Nina, Yeah, actually, sorry.
I was wondering if anyone else online might want to chime in about the implications of this on the humanitarian side, if what kind of planning is being done, if we're expecting to see a mass outflow of, of more refugees and how the how the UN system humanitarian community could respond to this.
I, we have yes in the room.
I'm looking at him, but also we have Eugene online for UNHCR.
I don't know and I think on Mondays also can is also on the line.
So looking at the platform colleagues, if you want to intervene, can you see it here?
Yes, it's better for the for the camera.
I'm, I'm just looking also at colleagues online if there is anything that they want to add.
I'll give the floor to Yens for that.
Oh, yes, please go ahead.
While we're waiting for Yens to settle in, colleagues have just confirmed it was February 2024 when we were expelled from the country.
Yeah, just to confirm that.
What's been done in preparation was already done in the past.
As you know, we have been responding to the humanitarian situation in in Venezuela for a number of years.
We do have a plan that was established late last year that identifies almost 8 million people, 1/4 of the population, being in need of humanitarian situation assistance.
We have a a response plan that we is is active this year asking for approximately 600 million U.S.
dollars in the prioritisation exercise that all response plan went through.
Of the nearly 8 million people, 900,000 are considered in very high categories of multi sectoral need.
That means that they need basically food, nutrition, education, health services, basically all the things that the state of of Venezuela has not been able to provide to its citizens for a number of years, which has meant that these large groups of people have kind of dropped out the bottom and into category of humanitarian need.
Venezuela also last year was one of the worst or least funded response plans sadly.
So that already had an impact last year, but we did reach approximately 2 million in the course of the year.
So there is a long term plan which deals with these things.
That's not if if you look at it, it's very dramatic what has happened on the political level, of course, absolutely in Venezuela.
But for the the broad masses of people, their humanitarian day-to-day situation hasn't changed that radically, has it?
So the, the situation as it was immediately before has continues till this day.
And that is that is the basis for for our work on the humanitarian side going forward this year.
I just want to follow up because the US and OCHA, you announced the deal before, right before the holidays about the US now providing, providing assistance through OCHA and giving a list of countries that they were going to provide assistance to.
I don't think Venezuela was on that list.
What does that mean that the US assistance, which has been very important for the UN system is not going to go to Venezuela?
Or do you expect that to change now if they're taking over control of the country?
On the latter part of your question, I have no idea.
I mean, that's for the US administration to to, to make that call.
And just on the, on, on the announcement that we made just before the new year, what this it's one donor, right?
It's, it's one donor giving a very substantial or pledging a very substantial amount for a number of of crisis countries that they have focused on and where we also focus our, our efforts.
But that is not an exhaustive list of neither donors nor of countries in need, right.
So moving forward, of course, we are trying to mobilise the, the entire donor base to, to step up, including for our 600 million response plan in Venezuela.
Umm, I don't know if Eugene maybe could answer this question.
Umm, I wonder if the refugees that are outside Venezuela, if the situation of them is changing, if they are trying to go back, if they have hopes or nothing has truly changed.
Eugene, I see you are connected.
I don't know if you want to take this up now or come back to that later on.
Thank you very much for your question.
To answer your question based on information available at this time of the, this time there are no particular reports of a displacement or cross-border movement linked to the recent events.
Of course, we're closely monitoring the situation and the border cross-border movement.
And then we stand together with other UN agency and humanitarian partners to support emergency relief effort and to protect the displaced people in need as require.
Of course, we're working closely with the OCHA and other UN partners.
But yeah, for, for, for the time being, we don't see any major displacement and then cross-border movement.
Thank you very much, Eugene.
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Most I don't know if you're asking about an analysis based on international law and yeah, no, no, I understood.
I understood the question, but I'm trying to understand what's behind it.
Are you asking for an analysis under international law or a statement of of some sort?
What I said in the statement is clear that this undermines A fundamental principle.
the US military operation over the weekend in Venezuela undermines A fundamental principle of international law that states must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The High Commissioner is also very clear about what this is and what it isn't.
This is not an attempt to defend human rights.
This is a violation of international law.
It is an act that makes all states less safe around the world.
And you asked also about this, you know, being an attack against the United Nations.
Indeed, it sends a signal that the powerful can do whatever they like.
And it weakens the mechanism that we have to, to prevent further conflict, to prevent even a third World War, namely the United Nations.
And This is why we're calling on all states to speak with one voice in defence of the UN Charter and in defence of international law.
Are there any other questions?
Regarding to my first question, as you have been expelled from the country, I don't know if you think that maybe with a new situation and the influence of the United States, even if you condemn the, the the operation, if you think maybe you can go back and establish your operations there again.
Indeed, we, we've made every possible effort to re establish our presence in the country over the past almost two years now.
And we do not believe in closing the door ever.
We're always open to constructive engagement.
We're always open to, to going in and re establishing A presence.
The High Commissioner said in in a speech last month that we do not believe in points of no return.
So we are there for the people of Venezuela.
We would like, we're doing what we can remotely from Panama to monitor the situation.
But of course, we're always ready to go back in.
So you would be open to talk with the United States government even if you condemn this situation?
We are always open to talking, even where we disagree.
Especially when we disagree, we would like to have a conversation.
But I wondered what I saw on Venezuela the same reaction military of decapitation strategy, same to Russia has done in the first of all, first of all, in the war Ukraine in the beginning of the war.
And the UN agencies has immediately a response on any special special meeting or special conference on the Human Human Rights Council extra.
And what are the next steps on your reaction for this violation on Venezuela for you or for?
Your response, your response next response is that got the same on the response on the Ukraine war or you have no more response for next step.
I think that that is, you know, the, the Member States in especially in for the Security Council, they are really, they, they take their own decisions some time of their agenda.
So we'll see what comes up next.
I, I know that the question about the Human Rights Council special session has been asked, but some journalists and I understand from our colleagues from the, the Council that for the moment there is no request on that.
And if things change, you will be of course informed.
I have in fact, a statement they've asked me to read and it's about the meeting on the 8th of January at 10 AM in the Assembly Hall.
It's, but it's going to be an organisational meeting of the Human Rights Council with the election of the president for the 20th cycle from the Group of Asia Pacific States, election of Vice President from the Group of Latin American Caribbean States, and the selection of troikas for upcoming session of the UPR.
This is what we have for the council now at the moment.
I'd like to give the floor to a few more people who haven't spoken yet to on the on the platform.
So I see Gorky and then I come back to the room.
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My question is a follow up to earlier questions to Ravina.
Ravina, I just saw your statement that you emailed to us in the opening paragraph.
Just for clarity when you're saying it's undermine A fundamental principle.
Are we talking here Article 2 four of the UN Charter just for clarity.
I have to look up which exact article it is.
John, give me a few minutes and I'll write back to you.
I don't think there are more questions.
Maybe you can take this afterwards with, with John, if you don't mind the Yeah.
Charlotte, thank you very much.
Charlotte, thanks for reminding us in the in the chat also of the fact that the Swiss government has declared a day of national mourning on the 9th of January.
So this is also why we are doing the we are lowering the flags on Friday.
Thank you Charlotte for remanding us this.
I think we can thank our colleagues who have been briefing today for this first briefing of the year.
Of course, we will continue monitoring the situation and send you the information that we will issue and otherwise, I'll see you on Friday for the next briefing.
Thank you very much, Ravina, Jens and all those who have participated.
