In her statement at the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development (HLD) 2021, Foreign Vice-minister for Multilateral Affairs Daniela Rodríguez denounced on Tuesday Venezuela is facing an additional challenge due to some powerful countries’ practice of imposing unilateral coercive measures, which cause migration and affect mitigating policies and preparedness against the effects of climate change, a factor that also causes human mobilization.
Rodríguez explained that coercive measures harm the fulfillment of the country’s commitment within the framework of the Convention on Climate Change, and called for cooperation, solidarity and complementarity and for the States to refrain from taking unilateral actions against other countries.
Foreign Vice-minister Rodríguez stressed that coercive measures do not only violate Public International Law, but also prevent Venezuela from developing the fruitful commercial, cooperation relations needed to face and fight world problems such as global warming and migration.
In this regard, she explained that, according to some studies, the South American country will have to face an increase in temperature of around 5º C by the end of the century, resulting in a negative impact on the domestic population reorganization.
«Currently, over 19% of our population lives on coastal areas that will be affected by these transformations of the environment, » caused by climate change, said Rodríguez at the virtual meeting convened by the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The Venezuelan vice-minister for Multilateral Affairs pointed out that Venezuela considers it is important to address the structural causes of migration and the deterioration of the planet resulting from the capitalist model, which destroys natural habitats through the exacerbation of consumption and the excessive accumulation of capital, thus causing social inequalities and having a disastrous impact on nature.
Rodríguez recalled that Venezuela has endorsed and fully abided by the dispositions of the Global Pact for Migration and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Also, she reaffirmed Venezuela’s commitment to the principle of shared, differentiated responsibilities and the adoption of effective measures enabling to tackle the structural causes of migration from the perspective of the protection of human rights.
Finally, she called for bilateral, multilateral cooperation among countries.
«It will not be possible to face these global challenges if we, as regions and nations, do not communicate and coordinate properly on the basis of the principles and purposes of the UN Charter and the Sustainable Development Goals, which undoubtedly unite us in this battle, » she stressed.