Sixty nations back Venezuela at UN rights council

Some 60 nations defended Venezuela’s peace and sovereignty before the UN Human Rights Commission on Thursday.

Venezuelan permanent UN representative in Geneva Jorge Valero said 60 African, Asian European and American countries signed a solidarity declaration.

The developing nations, including China, Russia and India, gave support to President Nicolas Maduro’s call for peace talks with the putschist opposition and the newly-elected constitutional reform assembly.

The unprecedented backing included unanimous support from Arab League members.

That was after the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) refused to attend recently-restarted talks in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday.

Mr Valero said the signatories affirmed all nations’ right to organise elections, including the July 30 vote for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC).

The US slapped sanctions on Venezuela for going ahead with the election, and the EU is set to follow suit.

Mr Valero said the nations recognised the ANC “promotes inclusive dialogue and mutual political recognition and seeks national unity.”

“It is thanks to the ANC... that peace reigns in Venezuela,” he added.

Four months of MUD-incited regime-change violence that left 124 dead rapidly petered out after the July 30 election.

Meanwhile in Caracas on Thursday Women’s groups petitioned the constituent assembly on a raft of measures.

They included decriminalising abortion, expanding sexual education programmes and free birth control provision through the public health system.

Abortion remains illegal in Venezuela, but is not penalised when the pregnant woman’s life or health is endangered.

Health ministry figures showed 756 women died from complications of pregnancy or birth in 2016, up from 456 the previous year.

Feminist Spider group campaigner Daniela Inojosa told RT Spanish the terms of reproductive rights laid out in section 76 of 1999 constitution — late president Hugo Chavez’ fist project — were “vey weak.”

It guarantees the right “to decide how many children to have, but the same article protects maternity from conception,” she said. “And conception is a completely religious concept, not a scientific one.”

Ms Inojosa said feminists were urging the assembly to “remove this term” from the next constitution, calling it an obstacle to decriminalising abortion.

Assembly president Delcy Rodriguez announced the creation of a Gender equality commission.

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