Snow in Venezuela? Or
Snowden in Venezuela?
You might know be
aware of this, but in Venezuela, a tropical country, very close to the Equator
Line, sometimes it is possible to see snow (even touch it) and..., apparently
Venezuela will also have Snowden. Yes, Edward Snowden. The famous or rather infamous
“whistle-blower”.
As I write this entry
rumors in the national press and other mass media point out to the fact that
Snowden could be granted asylum in Venezuela as it is considered by the
government that the crimes he is charged by the United States are of a
"political nature". Those charges include theft of government property and
unauthorized communication of national defense information.
The right of asylum
is an institution of Public International Law that has been enshrined in
several international instruments, which can be binding or not for a State,
depending if the same as ratified it or not.
Edward Snowden
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an international
instrument that is not binding*, but rather a declarative document,
states in its article 14:
"(1) Everyone has the
right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. (2)
This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising
from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles
of the United Nations".
Also,
other international instruments that regulate the institution of asylum, on a worldwide scale, are The United
Nations 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. The
applicability of these instruments to the present case is something I have
doubts about, but, again, I am not an expert on HHRR law, so please let me know
whether they would apply or not!
Venezuelan
government, however, is offering Snowden a different kind of asylum to that
protected under the mentioned conventions. The kind of asylum that is being
offered is a diplomatic asylum.
The
figure of political asylum is a typical institution of Latin American Public
International Law and protected under the San José Pact, the American Convention on
Human Rights, to
which Venezuela declared its renounce on September 10, 2012 and which will
enter into force in Septermber 2013 (see http://www.oas.org/dil/treaties_B-32_American_Convention_on_Human_Rights_sign.htm#Venezuela), which states in its article 22.7:
"Every person
has the right to seek and be granted asylum in a foreign territory, in
accordance with the legislation of the state and international conventions, in
the event he is being pursued for political offenses or related common
crimes".
It seems, then, that
the Venezuelan government is in its right to offer asylum to Snowden in case
the crimes that are being charged to him by the US prosecutor are of a
political nature (in this case they seem to be).
However, what will be
the price of such granting of asylum (in case it is finally granted)? Is the US
legally and/or morally allowed to retaliate against Venezuela or another
country that decides to grant asylum to Snowden? Or how contradictory is the
fact that Venezuela, a country that violates human rights and has denounce a
human rights international treaty (the one upon which it will rely to claim its
right to offer the asylum) is offering its protection to appear as a
"savior of human rights"?
I leave the analysis
up to you.
If the Snowden case
finally resolves, I will make sure to update this post with further news.
Until then.
* I am aware that
other people can have other opinions concerning the binding power of the
Declaration, but that it is out the scope of this short blog entry.
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