A/HRC/44/20 II. Economic and social rights 8. People in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela continued to experience interrelated violations of their economic and social rights, due to the protracted and multifactorial social and economic crisis. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the economy contracted by 25.5 per cent in 20191 and is expected to contract by a further 13 to 28 per cent in 2020 owing to the decline of international oil prices, the reduction of oil production, the economic stagnation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of economic sanctions.2 9. Increased economic and financial sanctions have exacerbated the pre-existing economic and social crisis by reducing resources that could have been used to better protect and fulfil economic and social rights. In August 2019, the United States of America issued an executive order blocking property and financial interests of the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the United States, prohibiting American citizens from engaging in transactions with the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and authorizing financial sanctions on persons of other nationalities that assist or support the Government or the State oil company Petróleos de Venezuela. 3 In the first half of 2020, the United States adopted secondary sanctions against the State-owned airline – Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos – and foreign companies buying and distributing oil from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to markets outside of the United States.4 10. According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of Treasury of the United States, since August 2019, it has issued 25 licences authorizing transactions involving the delivery of food, agricultural supplies, medicine and remittances. Despite these exceptions, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has asserted that “over-compliance”, in particular in the financial sector, has meant tighter controls, administrative delays and transactional costs for imports.5 11. While the reduction of the oil production capacity of Petróleos de Venezuela can be attributed to multiple factors, including mismanagement and corruption, sanctions against the oil sector have contributed to a sharp decrease in oil production and consequent reduction of revenue that could otherwise have been available for social programmes and public services. 6 These sectoral sanctions have targeted the country’s economy at its weakest point, with approximately 88.5 per cent of its total exports being oil products. 7 However, the lack of access to official data on budgets and expenditures has hindered the ability of OHCHR to fully assess the extent to which the sanctions have directly affected 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, “Preliminary overview of the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean – 2019. Available at https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/45001/89/BPI2019_Venezuela_en.pdf. www.latinamerica.undp.org/content/rblac/en/home/library/crisis_prevention_and_recovery/elimpacto-economico-del-covid-19-en-venezuela--la-urgencia-del-.html. Executive Order 13884. Published in Federal Register, vol. 84, No. 152 (7 August 2019). See also www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24882. On 7 February, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of Treasury of the United States designated the State-owned airline, Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos. On 18 February and 12 March 2020, respectively, the Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Rosneft Trading S.A. and TNK Trading International S.A., for operating in the oil sector in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. According to the response provided to an OHCHR questionnaire by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the average time for a financial transfer increased from 2 days in 2017 to 45 days in 2020 and banking fees for transfers increased from 0.5 per cent in 2017 to 10 per cent in 2020. According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, between January 2019 and January 2020, oil production dropped by 37 per cent. Crude oil production figures are based on secondary sources. According to the response provided by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the OHCHR questionnaire, there was a 50 per cent decrease in revenues related to its oil exports from 2018 to 2019. 2018 figures published by the Central Bank of Venezuela (see www.bcv.org.ve/estadisticas/comercioexterior (in Spanish)). 3