A/HRC/44/20
workplan. The committee includes the participation of OHCHR and 21 representatives of
10 State institutions: the Vice-presidency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of
Interior, the Ministry for Penitentiary Services, the Ministry of Defence, the Office of the
Attorney General, the Office of Public Defence, the Supreme Court of Justice, the military
jurisdiction and the Office of the Ombudsperson. The Coordination Committee has met 10
times, holding substantive discussions around key areas of cooperation and human rights
concerns, and increasing constructive engagement by the authorities.
72.
OHCHR organized two training workshops for State officials, to guide the adoption
of an inclusive and participatory methodology for the development of the second national
plan for human rights and the establishment of a national mechanism for reporting and
follow-up of recommendations of international human rights mechanisms. OHCHR will
subsequently provide technical advice to the State’s proposals on the road map to establish
a national mechanism and the methodology for the adoption of the human rights plan of
action. OHCHR also organized a workshop for State officials on the United Nations special
procedures system and facilitated dialogues with the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
73.
OHCHR conducted missions to Maracaibo, Zulia State; Ciudad Bolívar and Ciudad
Guayana, Bolívar State; and Barquisimeto, Lara State. It is grateful to the Government for
facilitating the visits.
74.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has agreed to a visit by the Special
Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of
human rights. The date of the visit is pending, owing to restrictions related to the COVID19 pandemic. The country also reiterated its invitation to the Special Rapporteur on the
right to development who, as a result of the pandemic, would not be able to accommodate a
visit in 2020. The country has expressed its commitment to inviting a third mandate holder
in 2020.
75.
OHCHR has also pursued technical assistance to strengthen the justice system, by
developing technical advice for the incorporation of the Minnesota Protocol on the
Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016) and the Manual on the Effective
Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol) into national investigations of suspected
extrajudicial killings and allegations of torture and ill-treatment. OHCHR provided
technical assistance to the Office of the Ombudsperson, by organizing a series of training
activities to assess its capacity-building and methodological needs and initiating an
assessment of the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture, in order to enhance
its capacities to effectively prevent cases of torture. OHCHR is also providing technical
assistance to identify factors that affect the situation in preventive detention centres; to
assess the impact of sanctions on human rights; and to update police force protocols on the
use of the force.
76.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the “state of alarm” declared on 13
March affected the implementation of technical cooperation. On 12 May, the Coordination
Committee agreed to prioritize a series of technical assistance activities in the context of the
restrictions and reaffirmed its commitment to fulfilling most areas of technical cooperation
by the end of September 2020. Such areas include capacity-building of officials of the
justice system and of law enforcement, and updating the human rights-compliant standard
operating procedures of law enforcement.
77.
The Coordination Committee has also addressed cases of persons deprived of liberty
that were submitted by OHCHR. Since June 2019, OHCHR has referred 244 documented
individual cases (230 men and 14 women) that required urgent solutions owing to health
reasons, judicial delays, non-execution of judicial release orders and/or continued detention
despite completion of sentences. The Coordination Committee provided information on the
judicial status of the cases and on the measures taken to address the humanitarian,
penitentiary and judicial concerns with regard to over 102 cases.
78.
Since September 2019, in the context of the national dialogue launched by the
Government with minority opposition parties and through the referral of the Commission
on Truth, Justice, Peace and Attention to the Victims of Political Violence, the judiciary
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