Venezuela: Doctors and human rights experts ask UN to declare "humanitarian emergency" – 04/04/2019

Washington. Corresponding

A group of doctors and human rights experts on Thursday asked the United Nations to intervene in Venezuela slow down a "complex humanitarian emergency", with severe shortages of food and medicine and the spread of disease across borders.

In a joint report released in Washington, experts at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and Human Rights Watch said the Nicolás Maduro regime had shown that does not have the ability to solve the crisis and that too he exacerbated by denying it and censoring information on the magnitude and urgency of the situation.

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The 73-page report documents a increase in mortality rates maternal and child health; epidemics of diseases that could be prevented by vaccination, such as measles and diphtheria, and a considerable increase in the transmission of infectious diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis. They also reveal high levels of food insecurity and child malnutrition, as well as a high proportion of children admitted to hospital malnutrition.

Shannon Doocy, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University, said, "The absolute collapse of the Venezuelan health system, coupled with a widespread food shortage, exacerbated the Venezuelan experience and put more people at risk. danger. We need the UN leadership to help end this serious crisis and save lives. "

The report's authors call on UN Secretary-General António Guterres to lead efforts for a "large-scale response" to address the situation inside and outside the country. Outside the country. In particular, they ask Guterres to declare that there is a "complex humanitarian emergency" in Venezuela, as this would unblock the mobilization of resources. They also want the secretary to urge Venezuelan authorities who publish official data on diseases, epidemiology, food security and nutrition so that the UN can badess humanitarian needs and the true scale of the crisis in the country.

"The UN General Secretariat should warn about what is happening and implement a large-scale, neutral, independent and impartial badistance plan for Venezuela," said Paul Spiegel, director of the Center for Humanitarian Health of Johns University. Hopkins.

"From a technical point of view, Venezuela is facing a complex humanitarian emergency, and if the UN Secretary-General does not officially declare it, it is very likely that the large-scale participation of the United Nations, which is essential to remedy this, will not happen. "

José Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch, added that the Venezuelan authorities "They are responsible for unnecessary loss of life this provoked his denial of the crisis and his policy of obstruction. "

MAP