The organization highlighted the breach in the state obligations binding United Nations members
The International Bar Association has called for the rule of law to be respected following the US government’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores over the past weekend.
On the morning of January 3, the US launched a military strike on Venezuela’s capital city, Caracas, and sent Maduro and Flores to the US. Per BBC, they were indicted on drug charges in New York. Vice president Delcy Rodriguez took the helm on January 5.
The IBA said that the intervention raised “serious questions under international law.” While it recognized that Maduro and members of his government faced significant human rights violation claims, it pointed out that the United Nations Charter’s core principles highlighted the essence of international legal order, “including the sovereign equality of states, the prohibition of intervention in matters within domestic jurisdiction, and the prohibition on the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”
The organization said that such principles bound all member states of the United Nations.
“Measures or policies aimed at coercing political change in another state, when undertaken outside internationally recognised legal frameworks, are inconsistent with these obligations and risk normalising conduct that international law was designed to prevent,” said IBA president Claudio Visco and executive director Mark Ellis in a joint statement. “Even in the face of ongoing reprehensible conduct by state leaders, adherence to international law remains essential to preserving the integrity of the rules-based international order.”
The IBA urged a “democratic transition in Venezuela that respects the rule of law.” It said that the claims against Maduro, which also included suppressing democratic institutions and conduct contributing to widespread humanitarian suffering, needed to be addressed under domestic and international law and handled via lawful mechanisms, “including international or independent domestic judicial processes.”
