UN: Venezuela fails to silence political prisoners’ appeal for amnesty
Source: UN Watch
Venezuela was overruled by the chair of the UN human rights council today, when its delegate interrupted a UN speech (see below) in a failed bid to stop the reading of an appeal for council members to release political prisoners on the occasion of the councils 10th anniversary.
The appeal, signed by family members of political prisoners in Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Venezuela, Vietnam and Cuba, was read out today in the plenary of the council by Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights group.
Venezuelas delegate interrupted as soon as Neuer mentioned the name of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. We do not think it is appropriate to raise specific countries, he said, even though virtually all of the previous 15 NGO speeches had done exactly that.
However, the objection was shot down with uncommon firmness by the session chair, who strongly defended UN Watchs right to speak. I have the impression that the speaker was perfectly in the context of this agenda item. We are all in favor of participation of civil society, and this was just a civil society group expressing itself, he said.
Read more: http://www.unwatch.org/un-venezuela-fails-silence-political-prisoners-appeal-amnesty/
United Nations Watch takes the floor today to make a special appeal. We do so in the name of family members of political prisoners worldwide who have declared their support:
Ensaf Haidar, wife of Raif Badawi, blogger, political prisoner in Saudi Arabia
Anastasia Zotova, fiancée of Ildar Dadin, human rights activist and political prisoner in Russia
Ti-Anna Wang, daughter of Wang Binzhang, pro-democracy leader, political prisoner in China
Lilian Tintori, wife of Leopoldo López, opposition leader, political prisoner in Venezuela
Dang Ngoc Minh, mother of Nguyen Dang Minh Man, journalist, democracy activist and political prisoner in Vietnam
Yunisleisi Soto Garcia, wife of Alexander Palacio Reyes, democracy activist and political prisoner in Cuba