NCJ Number
178607
Date Published
October 1997
Length
28 pages
Annotation
The cases documented in this report by Amnesty International show that the right to life and physical integrity of minors under 18 years old is being flagrantly violated by members of the Venezuelan security forces who take justice into their own hands and blatantly abuse state powers entrusted to them.
Abstract
Although Venezuela has increasingly come under the spotlight of international public attention for its appalling human rights record with its adult population, its human rights record with children has not been exposed to date. This report shows that children in Venezuela are also at risk of serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and torture, as well as ill-treatment and arbitrary detention. Leading human rights organizations in Venezuela have over the last few years repeatedly expressed concern about the deterioration in the situation of children's human rights and the number and type of violations committed against children--despite the fact that the Venezuelan government was instrumental in drafting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it ratified on September 13, 1990. This report illustrates how the authorities are failing to meet their international obligation to protect the basic human rights of children and to provide them with the special protection and care they need. The overwhelming majority of current human rights violations against minors affect those from the poorest sectors of society and occur in the context of police and army operations as well as detention centers. Those most often accused of such human rights are members of the Metropolitan Police, the National Guard, the Venezuelan army, prison guards, and other special security force units. Amnesty International calls on the Venezuelan government to demonstrate its political will to improve the human rights situation of minors by bringing to justice those responsible for the violations against children outlined in this report, thus making effective its commitment and responsibility before the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including adopting the recommendations of Amnesty International.