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IX. RECOMMENDATIONS
1164. In accordance with the preceding analysis and conclusions, and considering that observance of democracy and the rule of law is a condition for the effective protection of human rights, the Commission reiterates the specific recommendations contained in each of the chapters of the present report and additionally makes the following recommendations to the State of Venezuela:
1. Guarantee the full exercise of political rights for all individuals, independently of their position on government policies, and adopt the measures necessary to promote tolerance and pluralism in the exercise of political rights.
2. Refrain from carrying out reprisals or using the punitive power of the State to intimidate or sanction individuals based on their political opinions and guarantee the plurality of spaces for democratic activity, including respect for mobilizations and protests that are carried out in exercise of the right of assembly and peaceful demonstration.
3. Guarantee in an effective manner the separation and independence of the public branches of power and in particular, adopt urgent measures to ensure the independence of the judicial branch, strengthening procedures for appointing and removing judges and prosecutors, affirming their job stability, and eliminating the situation of provisionality in which the large majority of judges and prosecutors find themselves.
4. Adopt the measures that are necessary to protect the life and personal integrity of all persons, as well as the specific measures that are necessary to protect social communicators, human rights defenders, unionists, individuals who participate in public demonstrations, and individuals who have been deprived of their liberty. Additionally, strengthen the institutional capacity of the judicial instances to combat the pattern of impunity in cases of violence and to guarantee due diligence and effectiveness in the investigations relative to these acts.
5. Adopt urgent measures aimed at dismantling the armed civilian groups that operate outside of the law and sanction the illicit acts of these groups to prevent them from being repeated in the future.
6. Maintain from the highest levels of the government the public condemnation of acts of violence against social communicators, communications media, human rights defenders, unionists, and political dissidents, with the aim of preventing actions that foment these crimes, and avoiding the continued development of a climate of stigmatization towards those who maintain a critical stance against government actions.
7. Promote a climate of tolerance that favors the active participation and exchange of ideas among the various sectors of society, as well as design institutions that promote and do not inhibit or hinder public deliberation.
8. Guarantee the conditions for defenders of human rights and union rights to be able to carry out their activities freely, refraining from taking any action and adopting legislation that would limit or impede their work.
9. Take all the measures necessary so that women who are victims of violence will have full access to adequate judicial protection and adopt the legal, judicial, and other mechanisms necessary to investigate, sanction, and provide reparations for accusations of violence against women in Venezuela.
10. Adopt urgent measures to comply with the State’s obligation to demarcate and delimit the ancestral lands of the Venezuelan indigenous communities, establishing adequate and effective procedures for such acts, as well as to entitle the lands effectively in favor of the corresponding communities.
11. Adopt, urgently, the measures necessary to correct procedural delays and reverse the high percentage of persons deprived of their liberty without a firm conviction, avoiding the excessive, unnecessary, and disproportionate use of preventive detention. Additionally, implement measures tending to reduce prison overpopulation and adjust the conditions of detention to international standards in this area, in particular ensuring internal security in prisons, effective control of weapons inside prisons, adequate separation of persons deprived of liberty according to the categories and criteria established in the Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, and prohibiting the occupation of detention facilities in excess of their capacities.
12. Intensify efforts to achieve progressively the full enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights and to guarantee that this does not imply diminishing other fundamental rights of the population. Additionally, adopt public policies that permit long-term continuity of efforts aimed at guaranteeing economic, social, and cultural rights, ensuring that the full enjoyment of these rights does not depend on the will of one government or another.
13. Implement the laws and mechanisms necessary so that the citizenry can easily and effectively access public information and facilitate its broad knowledge of the administration of the various State bodies.
14. Bring the domestic legislation into conformity with the parameters established by the inter-American human rights system, taking into account the recommendations relating to the specific norms that have been analyzed by the Commission in the present Report.
1165. In concluding the report Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urges the State to comply fully with the international obligations it assumed upon ratification of the American Convention, reiterates its interest in making a visit to Venezuela, and extends, within the framework of its competencies, its offer of collaboration and advice to the Venezuelan State to facilitate adoption of the measures necessary to give effect to its recommendations.
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