Site icon International Action Center

UN HRC Letters combined regarding Venezuelan diplomat Saab

Janet

HAUT-COMMISSARIAT AUX DROITS DE L’HOMME • OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PALAIS DES NATIONS • 1211 GENEVA 10, SWITZERLAND 

www.ohchr.org • TEL: +41 22 917 9895 • FAX: +41 22 917 9008 • E-MAIL: petitions@ohchr.org 

REFERENCE: G/SO 215/51 CPV (1) 

MT/MKL/ma 3953/2021 

 

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE 

PROCEDURE OF INDIVIDUAL COMMUNICATIONS UNDER THE OPTIONAL  PROTOCOL 

8 June 2021 

Dear Sir,  

We have the honour to inform you that your communication dated 7 June 2021,  which you submitted to the Human Rights Committee for consideration under the Optional  Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on behalf of Mr. Alex  Nain Saab Moran, has been registered as communication No. 3953/2021. You are kindly  asked to refer to this registration number in any future correspondence. You are also invited  to direct any future correspondence to the Petitions and Urgent Actions Section of the Human  Rights Treaty Bodies Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,  through the following e-mail address: petitions@ohchr.org.  

Interim Measures  

Pursuant to rule 94 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, the State party has been  requested to refrain from extraditing Mr. Alex Nain Saab Moran to the United States of  America while his case is under consideration by the Committee or until further notice. The  State party has been further requested to take all necessary measures to ensure access to  appropriate health care for the author, preferably by independent and specialized physicians  of his choice. This request is made on the basis of the information contained in the author’s submission. The Committee may review its decision on the basis of the information provided  by the State party and the author. 

Registration of the case  

In accordance with rule 92 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, a copy of the  communication has been transmitted to the State party today, with the request that any  information or observations in respect of both the question of admissibility and the merits of  your communication should reach the Committee no later than 8 February 2022. Any reply  from the State party will be communicated to you in due course to enable you to comment  thereon, if you so wish. Please note that all deadlines for observations have been  extended by 2 months in light of the spread of COVID-19. The State party has therefore  been granted an exceptional deadline of eight months.  

Confidentiality

 

 

HAUT-COMMISSARIAT AUX DROITS DE L’HOMME • OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PALAIS DES NATIONS • 1211 GENEVA 10, SWITZERLAND 

www.ohchr.org • TEL: +41 22 917 9895 • FAX: +41 22 917 9008 • E-MAIL: petitions@ohchr.org 

Please be aware that final decisions adopted by the Human Rights Committee are  made public. Therefore, if the author wishes for his identity to not be disclosed in the final  decision, you are kindly requested to so indicate as soon as possible. Kindly note that, due  to the level of publicity the Committee’s decisions usually receive (including dissemination  via Internet, which thus makes the correction and/or deletion of data circulating online  virtually impossible), it may not be possible to satisfy requests for anonymity submitted after  the publication of the Committee’s decision. The Committee shall not be responsible to the  author in any manner for any inconvenience, arising out of their failure to notify the  Committee in a timely manner about his decision not to have his name disclosed to the public  at large. 

For information, please find herewith a copy of the Committee’s rules of procedure. Yours sincerely, 

  

Helene Tigroudja Arif Bulkan  

Human Rights Committee Special Rapporteurs  

 on New Communications and Interim Measures 

 

Mr. Jose Manuel Pinto Monteiro 

E-mail: zmpmgt@gmail.com 

Irina.acampora@amadeus.london

 

HAUT-COMMISSARIAT AUX DROITS DE L’HOMME • OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PALAIS DES NATIONS • 1211 GENEVA 10, SWITZERLAND 

www.ohchr.org • TEL: +41 22 917 9895 • FAX: +41 22 917 9008 • E-MAIL: petitions@ohchr.org 

REFERENCE: G/SO 215/51 CPV (1) 

MT/MKL/ma 3953/2021 

16 June 2021 

Dear Sir, 

This is to acknowledge receipt of your further submission dated 15 June 2021  concerning complaint No. 3953/2021, which was submitted to the Human Rights  Committee, for consideration under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on  Civil and Political Rights, on behalf of Alex Nain Saab Moran. 

In the light of the information before it concerning the alleged deterioration of the  author’s health, the Committee has reminded the State party of its request for interim  measures of 8 June 2021, in particular whereby the State party has been asked to take all  necessary measures to ensure access to appropriate health care for the author, preferably by  independent and specialized physicians of his choice. 

Yours sincerely 

Ibrahim Salama 

Chief, Human Rights Treaties Branch 

 

Mr. Jose Manuel Pinto Monteiro 

E-mail: zmpmgt@gmail.com 

Irina.acampora@amadeus.london

June 17, 2021 

PERMANENT MISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CAPE VERDE TO THE UNITED NATIONS 

27 East 69th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021 

(212) 472-0333 

(212) 794-1398 

Email: capeverde@un.int 

Re: Respect for the interim measures ordered by the United Nations Human Rights Committee for Cape Verde N°3953/2021 

Extradition of Alex Saab 

Dear Sir or Madam 

We are writing to you urge you to respect the attached order N°3953/2021 of the Human Rights Committee 

Cabo Verde is a member State of the United Nations, it has been a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since August 6, 1993 and to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since May 19, 2000. That implies that Cabo Verde must respect its international obligations regarding the human rights protected by this treaty and comply with the orders and decisions of the expert body in charge of the supervision of the treaty, which is the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations. 

Under rule 92 of its rules of procedure, the Committee may, after receipt of a communication and before adopting its Views, request a State party to take interim measures in order to avoid irreparable damage to the victim of the alleged violations. The Committee continues to apply this rule on appropriate occasions, for instance in cases of imminent deportation or extradition which may involve or expose the author to a real risk of violation of rights protected under the Covenant, or when issues concerning the health of the alleged victim are at stake. 

Interim measures are usually implemented 

While in the majority of cases where the Committee requested the States parties concerned to take interim measures such requests were granted and complied with, there were some instances in which this was not done. When a State refuses to comply the Committee recalled its jurisprudence that a State party commits serious breaches of its obligations under the Optional Protocol if its action or inaction serves to prevent or frustrate consideration by the Committee of a communication alleging a violation of the Covenant, or to render examination by the

Committee moot and the expression of its Views nugatory and futile. Interim measures pursuant to rule 92 of its rules of procedure, adopted in conformity with article 39 of the Covenant, are essential to the Committee’s role under the Optional Protocol. Flouting of the rule, especially by irreversible measures such as, in the present case, the author’s extradition, undermines the protection of Covenant rights through the Optional Protocol. In the Committee’s view, these circumstances disclose a breach by the State party of its obligations under article 1 of the Optional Protocol. 

Among the few states that have not complied with the interim measures of the Human Rights Committee is Belarus [No. 2017/2010, Burdyko v. Belarus]. 

Consequences of refusal by Cape Verde 

The United Nations Human Rights Committee calls on Cape Verde to ‘refrain from extraditing Mr. Alex Saab to the United States of America” and to “take all necessary measures to ensure access to appropriate health care […] by independent and specialized physicians of his choice”. Such measures are truly clear and require that the State of Cabo Verde implements them as such. The suspension of extradition is clear and the access to independent and specialized physicians of his choice are measures extremely clear as well. 

The refusal by Cape Verde to comply with its international obligations would have serious, structural, and long-lasting diplomatic, economic, political, and legal consequences for Cape Verde. By refusing or ignoring the interim measures, Cape Verde would be following the path of Belarus and confirming its desire to definitively renounce adherence to human rights and the rule of law. 

We urge Cape Verde to respect this order to refrain from extraditing Mr. Alex Nain Saab Moran to the United States of America while his case is under consideration by the Committee as well as ensuring access to appropriate health care according to the 8 June 2021 Decision. 

Sincerely,