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Detailed findings of the independent international factfinding mission on the Bolívarian Republic of Venezuela: The human rights situation in the Arco Minero del Orinoco region and other areas of the Bolíva (A/HRC/51/CRP.2) (Advance Unedited Version)

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Human Rights Council
Fifty-first session
12 September-7 October 2022
Agenda item 4
Human rights situations that require the Council's attention

I. Introduction

A. Mandate

  1. On 27 September 2019, through resolution 42/25, the Human Rights Council established an independent international fact-finding Mission on the Bolívarian Republic of Venezuela (hereinafter “the Mission”). On 6 October 2020, the Human Rights Council extended the Mission’s mandate for two additional years, until September 2022, through resolution 45/20.

  2. Resolution 45/20 allowed the Mission to continue investigating serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, including those involving sexual and gender-based violence since 2014. At the time of writing this report, the expert members of the Mission were Marta Valiñas, from Portugal (Chairperson),1 Francisco Cox, from Chile2 and Patricia Tappatá, from Argentina.3 The experts carried out their work ad honorem.

  3. The Human Rights Council requested the Mission to prepare a report to present its findings to the Council during an interactive dialogue at its fifty-first session.4 The Mission has prepared three documents: (1) the mandated report presented to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/51/43); (2) a first conference room paper on the role of State’s intelligence services, in enabling, promoting and committing human rights violations and crimes, and (3) the current conference room paper, which contains an investigation focused on human rights violations and crimes committed in the region of the Arco Minero del Orinoco (hereinafter “Arco Minero”) and other mining areas in Bolívar state.

  4. In its 2020 report, the Mission indicated that time and resource constraints had prevented it from analysing all contexts involving human rights violations that could fall within the Mission’s mandate.5 Among these scenarios, the Mission had already identified human rights violations within the Arco Minero region, along with violations committed against indigenous peoples.6

  5. The human rights situation in the Arco Minero region has been subject to growing concern by international and regional human rights bodies.7 In its resolution 45/20, the Human Rights Council expressed “deep concern at the human rights and environmental situation” in the region, including with regard to the exploitation of miners, child labour, human trafficking and forced prostitution, and expressed “particular concern about the violations of the rights of indigenous peoples” in the region.8

  6. This report focuses on the human rights violations and crimes in the Arco Minero del Orinoco region and surrounding areas within Bolívar state under the Mission's mandate to investigate “gross violations of human rights.”9 Such violations and crimes frequently occur in connection with illegal mining of gold and other strategic minerals.

  7. These violations and crimes are perpetrated both by State agents, particularly the military in charge of security in the mining region, as well as by non-State actors. These non-State actors include criminal groups (known as sindicatos and pranatos) and guerrilla groups from neighbouring Colombia. The investigation focuses, although not exclusively, on the period after 2016, the date when the Arco Minero del Orinoco region was formally established.10 8. Due to time and resource constraints, the Mission has not been able to analyse the situation in the states of Amazonas and Delta Amacuro, which also fall within the Arco Minero region, despite having indications that these states share similar dynamics and patterns of violations and crimes related to illegal mining.11 In particular, the Mission expresses its concern about the serious human rights situation in the state of Amazonas.12 Of particular concern are the violations of the individual and collective rights of indigenous communities, which represent almost 45% of the population of Amazonas. Among others, the Mission has recorded several allegations of labour and sexual exploitation, including cases of sexual slavery.13