The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency session on the United States’ capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro at 10 a.m. today in New York City.
Venezuela formally requested the meeting of the council, which includes as permanent members China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as 10 other nonpermanent member nations, according to a U.N. statement.
A spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement Saturday that the United States’ actions in Venezuela “constitute a dangerous precedent. The Secretary-General continues to emphasize the importance of full respect — by all — of international law, including the UN Charter.”
The United Nations has also documented human rights abuses, including alleged extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence by Venezuelan officials. But the U.N. said those issues can be considered separately from a nation’s attack on another sovereign state for violations of its laws from abroad.
“Alleged violations do not justify a military intervention that breaches international law, while the illegality of such an intervention does not diminish the responsibility of Venezuelan officials for years of repression, amounting to crimes against humanity,” the U.N. said, attributing the argument to Canada-based human rights lawyer Alex Neve.
The Security Council’s tools include imposing economic sanctions on a country deemed to have acted outside the law and the charter, military action, and facilitating multinational solutions to conflicts.