The law guarantees freedom of expression, including for the press, but the combination of laws and regulations on defamation and media content, as well as legal harassment, physical intimidation of individuals and the media, and executive influence over the judiciary have led to a significant crackdown on these freedoms. National and international groups such as the IACHR, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the Inter-American Press Association, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists throughout the year condemned the former regime`s efforts to restrict press freedom and create a climate of fear and self-censorship. The law prohibits all the worst forms of child labour. The law sets the minimum age for admission to employment at 14 years. Children under the age of 14 may work only with special permission from the National Institute for Minors or the Ministry of Labour. Such authorization is not granted to minors who have not reached the legal age to engage in hazardous work likely to endanger their life or health or jeopardize their mental or moral development. According to the ILO, the former Maduro regime had not made public the list of specific types of work deemed dangerous. Children between the ages of 14 and 18 may not work without the permission of their legal guardian or in professions expressly prohibited by law, and they may not work more than six hours a day or 30 hours a week. Minors under the age of 18 are not allowed to work outside the normal working day. The humanitarian situation in the country is closely linked to current and future developments in the southern Orinoco River, and donors should be open to needs that go beyond the purely humanitarian and development aspects of the crisis.

There is a role to be played not only for the environment of the United Nations, but also for other UN bodies. The Sustainable Development Goals and peacekeeping (one of the main objectives of the United Nations) are mutually reinforcing. « Peace and security » is one of the three central pillars of the UN, and violence, forced labor, prostitution and human trafficking in southern Venezuela are directly linked to the crisis and the mining gold mine that has strengthened violent actors. The malaria epidemic in Venezuela is also directly linked to the rapid expansion of mining and the resulting deforestation. These issues need to be addressed now, and while the UN is focusing on more traditional humanitarian needs, broader involvement of organizations such as UNEP, UNHCR and WHO in environmental security will be needed, whether in-country or remotely. Inmates and inmates generally had access to visitors, including some with overnight privileges, but in some cases prison officials harassed or mistreated visitors. For political prisoners, prison authorities imposed significant restrictions on family visits and legal representation. If allowed in, visitors were temporarily subject to patrols. There is a risk of serious conflict in southern Venezuela.

A change of government or a change of power at the executive level could plunge current alliances into turmoil and provoke new tensions. Mineral deposits and armed groups know no international borders, and mining violence and conflicts over access to mines have already led to border tensions with Colombia, Guyana and Brazil. Failing to address the problem of the environment and armed groups in southern Venezuela means causing a major headache for the entire region in the future. Rape and domestic violence: The law criminalizes the rape of men or women, including marital rape, and is punishable by eight to 14 years in prison. A man can legally escape punishment by marrying the person he raped (before being convicted). The law allows authorities to consider other forms of punishment, including a work stoppage, for those convicted of various crimes, including rape, if they have served three-quarters of their sentence. It is important that after the transition, Venezuela is not marked by the mistake of not including environmental security. In a report, UN Environment analyzed intra-state conflicts over the past sixty years, and one of its preliminary findings is that if there is a link between conflict and natural resources, the likelihood of relapsing into conflict in the first five years of a peace agreement is twice as high. The Maduro government claims that Venezuela has the second largest gold reserves in the world and that in 2016 it had a vast mining development area dubbed the « Orinoco Mining Arc. » So far, this legislation seems to be nothing more than a legal cloak around an uncontrolled sector.

Foreign investors stayed away as illegal mining was rampant. In recent months, the National Assembly and the National Executive have promoted the return of property expropriated by foreign and domestic investors through the above-mentioned expropriation policy. An emblematic case was the recent return of the Sambil shopping center in the municipality of La Candelaria to its rightful owners. Police violence and involvement in crimes, in particular the activities of illegal armed groups, including illegal detentions, extrajudicial executions, abductions and excessive use of force, continued to be reported, but the previous regime at the national, state and local levels failed to take effective measures to investigate officials who committed human rights violations. And there was impunity for such abuses. The Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights did not provide information on allegations of human rights violations committed by police and military personnel. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) found that many victims did not report violent crimes to the police or other regime authorities for fear of reprisals or lack of trust in the police. The former Maduro regime, backed by members of Cuba`s security forces, refused to relinquish power and prevented the interim government from acting. Environmental degradation due to unregulated mining and conflicts over access to these precious lands has already violently displaced the population, while the national economic collapse and the resulting decline in employment and incomes have prompted others to venture into the lawless mining region south of the Orinoco.