About 13 years ago, the civil organization Venezuelan Criminal Forum began to write its own history through the promotion of human rights in the country. Its beginnings are marked by the initiative of a group of lawyers who saw with concern the belligerent action of the Venezuelan State against its own dissident citizenship, in its founding group outstanding people can be mentioned, such as Carlos Bastidas Espinoza, along with his colleagues Mónica Fernández, Gonzalo Himiob, among others.
Currently, it is directed by Alfredo Romero, who has been responsible for merging the efforts of organizations and independent volunteers to the main cause of the NGO since 2009: Legal assistance to arbitrarily detained people.
In addition, they are dedicated to free legal assistance and support for family members and victims of arbitrary detentions.
"One of the best ways that the Venezuelan Criminal Forum has found to serve, support, and contribute to the development of society, and above all to ensure full permanence and respect for Human Rights in the country, is through the provision of free services in the legal assistance of arbitrarily detained people, this work is carried out by lawyers, experts, specialists and experts in several areas of legislation within and outside the country," as shown on its web portal.
Time has made more volunteers join the work of the Criminal Forum, today it is supported by 3,000 people called "Active Defenders" who are in the country and abroad and are concerned for Venezuelans’ human rights to be guaranteed.
In each state of Venezuela there is a Regional Coordinator, so far there are 160 legal professionals who in turn are supported by professional and non-professional assistants.
The team of lawyers that formally integrate the Venezuelan Criminal Forum provide pro bono services in the legal assistance of arbitrarily detained people. Others serve as eventual collaborators.
The NGO has earned several national and international awards. Among them, the award given by the government of the United States of America to the defenders of Criminal Forum, in July 2015; the award to Criminal Forum in Zulia by the State Bar Association, in August 2015; the prize awarded by the Bar Association of Barcelona, Spain, in February 2016; and finally, the director of the organization, Alfredo Romero, was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award 2017.
How do you defend rights?
Within the organization, there is an action protocol that includes five fundamental steps for the defense of human rights of the transgressed victims.
Reception of denounces
The free action of the Criminal Forum’s lawyers begins with the reception of the corresponding denounce about a violation of Human Rights or arbitrary detention in our Denunciation Center. The denunciations, at national level, are received in three ways:
Through our three telephone lines: 0058 0414-2694287, 0058 0412-5568211 and 0058 0412-5568212
Via email, through two addresses that are continuously monitored, which are info@foropenal.com and denuncia@foropenal.com
Through the format specially enabled on our website: Contact Form
The denunciation center is enabled 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Criminal Forum does not process denounces or requests made through social media.
Previous checks
Once the denunciation has been received, with the complete identification data, the person is asked to briefly narrate the facts that give rise to the denunciation.
In the Criminal Forum, anonymous denunciations are not processed, neither those made by minors without corroboration and ratification of their legal representatives, nor denunciations from people who refuse to indicate their identity, nor those whose data identification do not match with those contained in the public database of the National Electoral Council.
In those cases in which the person directly affected by a violation of their human rights or the victim of an arbitrary detention cannot formulate the request for free legal support by herself/himself, the person making the report or request must be a direct family member of the victim or the detainee, and that expressly authorizes the lawyers that are designated by the Criminal Forum in charge of the case to assume their defence.
National evaluation and allocation of causes
The denunciation or request for free legal support is immediately submitted to the consideration of the lawyers that make up the National Board of Directors, namely, Alfredo Romero Mendoza, Gonzalo Himiob Santomé and Alonso Medina Roa.
In this phase, the facts are evaluated and it is determined whether the case constitutes, preliminarily, a grave violation of the victim's human rights or an arbitrary detention. If affirmative, the Criminal Forum board immediately contacts the Regional Coordinator directly in charge of the case. As of that moment, the cause is formally assigned to each Regional Coordination, and the direct contact data is provided to the applicant with the respective Regional Coordinators or with the lawyers of their local work teams who are designated by them to attend each cause.
At the request of the interested party or the Regional Coordinators, any of the lawyers that make up the National Board of Directors can integrate the legal defence team of the interested party, both nationally and internationally.
Regional assignment of causes
Once the Regional Coordinator is notified of the assignment of the case, he is immediately contacted by the denouncers or petitioners. Once the precise nature of the requested assistance is determined, the legal options are analyzed and the preliminary course of action is established. At this point, each Regional Coordinator appoints the members of their team that will work in the assigned defence, either jointly with them or with the members of the National Board of Directors, or independently and under the coordination and supervision of the Regional Coordinator and the Board of Directors of the Criminal Forum.
Usually, in cases of arbitrary detention, local legal work is divided among three lawyers, given that the Venezuelan Code of Criminal Procedure (COPP) (Article 141) imposes that as the maximum number of defenders for each investigated, accused or prosecuted. These can also be used as non-professional assistants and, if the case needs it, an international legal representative is also appointed.
Legal work teams
Legal work teams, with the corresponding profiles of senior attorneys and assistant attorneys in each region, are articulated in each case in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraphs. The identity of all our lawyers can be observed by the state of Venezuela in the Lawyers section.
Learn more about Foro Penal Venezolano visiting its website and its social media accounts:
https://www.facebook.com/foropenalvenezolano/
Contact Us
Regional - Américas
Calle Luz Saviñón 519, Colonia del Valle Benito Juárez, 03100. Ciudad de México, México
Global
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW. Reino Unido.
