Last Updated on August 31, 2019, 3:09 AM AST by Anthony Morris
St Kitts and Nevis abstained from voting on a resolution at the OAS on the Human Rights Situation in Venezuela on Wednesday.
According to the Organization of American States (OAS), St Kitts and Nevis, represented by His Excellency Dr Everson Hull, was the only OECS member state that abstained.
St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica voted against a resolution while Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada were absent when the vote taken.
Nicaragua voted against the resolution while Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Mexico, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago abstained. Uruguay was absent for the vote.
The Bahamas, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, and St Lucia voted in favour of the vote, joining Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.
The OAS said the Permanent Council approved the resolution which strongly condemns “the grave and systematic violations of human rights in Venezuela, including the use of torture, illegal and arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and the denial of the most basic rights and necessities, especially those related to health, food and education.”
According to the OAS, the resolution demands “an independent exhaustive and credible investigation that makes it possible to bring the perpetrators and masterminds of the human rights violations to justice”.
The resolution also resolves “to demand immediate and unhindered access for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to Venezuela”, and “to foster the strengthening of cooperation between the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor the human rights situation in Venezuela”.
During the meeting, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro affirmed that “the OAS General Secretariat does not find it possible to ignore the denunciations and testimonies presented by Venezuelans who suffer the persecution of the regime.
“We understand the legal and moral obligation to criminally investigate these cases,” he said.
Almagro also noted “the importance of opening an international criminal investigation within the framework of the International Criminal Court to determine individual responsibility for the crimes that have been committed in the country”.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
