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STOP PERSECUTING VENEZUELAN NGO

UA: 97.24 Venezuela
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This action ended on January 31, 2025

Since November 2024, authorities in Venezuela have increased their attacks against PROVEA, a renowned NGO defending human rights in the country. While a high-ranking government official threatened them directly on a TV show a few weeks prior, the Forensic Criminal Investigations Police (CICPC, in Spanish) has now issued a summons to Oscar Murillo, PROVEA’s general coordinator, to give testimony in a case of an alleged crime under the highly contested ‘anti-hatred law’. We call on authorities to immediately cease all reprisals and threats to PROVEA, its members and other NGOs demanding justice and accountability in Venezuela.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: January 30, 2025

Sample Letter

President Nicolas Maduro,

I am writing to you with grave concern about the attacks and threats that loom over PROVEA and its general coordinator, Oscar Murillo.

We have received information about certain government officials attacking PROVEA in the media, putting them at high risk of persecution and other grave human rights violations and potential crimes under international law. We also learned of the summons issued by the Forensic Criminal Investigations Police (CICPC in Spanish, Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations Corps) to Oscar Murillo, for “the commission of a crime contemplated in the Law against hatred, for peaceful coexistence and tolerance”.

Human rights organizations and their members must be protected, and their work must be guaranteed by the state. Any fear of reprisals or criminalization against them threatens their right to defend their own and others’ human rights.

We call on you to cease all reprisals and attacks on PROVEA and ensure that human rights defenders are able to carry out their work in accordance with international human rights law.

Respectfully,

[YOUR NAME]

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