Foro Penal

Foro Penal (transl. Penal Forum) is a Venezuelan human rights organization that provides legal assistance pro bono to people subject of arbitrary detentions and their relatives. The organization is composed of regional coordinators for each state in Venezuela, pro bono lawyers on a national level and a network of over five thousand volunteers, non-lawyer activists, known as "active defensors".[1][2]

Foro Penal
TypeNon-profit NGO
Location
FieldsHuman rights activism
Director
Alfredo Romero
Websiteforopenal.com

History

Lawyers Alfredo Romero and Gonzalo Himiob founded the non-governmental organization Víctimas Venezolanas de Violaciones a los Derechos Humanos (VIVE) as a response to human rights violations that occurred after the Llaguno Overpass events in Caracas on 11 April, 2002. The same year lawyers Carlos Bastidas Espinoza and Mónica Fernández, among others, founded the NGO Foro Penal Venezolano to investigate abuses of the judicial branch and to promote an amnesty law for all political prisoners of the 11 April events.[3][4]

Structure

Foro Penal is constituted as a civil association composed of regional coordinators for each state in Venezuela, pro bono lawyers on a national level and a network of over five thousand volunteers, non-lawyer activists, known as "active defensors". The directive board is made up of Alfredo Romero, director president, Gonzalo Himiob, director vicepresident, and Robiro Terán.[5]

Attacks

In 2008, Mónica Fernández suffered an attack in which she was shot in the back. Despite being shot very close to her spine she did not suffer major injuries.[6]

Alfredo Romero has been criminalized several times by state officials and in media programs, particularly in Diosdado Cabello's Con El Mazo Dando, has received death threats, has been harassed in national airports and has denounced the intervention of Foro Penal's communications without a warrant. Romero has a cautelary protection measure issued by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in 17 March 2015.[7]

During a 2017 interview by Spanish journalist Jordi Évole in the program Salvados, Nicolás Maduro accused Foro Penal of being financed by the United States, as well as other organizations such as Transparency International and Caritas, and of being "directed by delinquents".[8][9]

Awards

Foro Penal has been awarded several times both in Venezuela and abroad, including the award given by the United States government in July 2015, the condecoration to Foro Penal in Zulia state by the State Lawyers Association in August 2015 and the award given by the Barcelona Lawyers Association, Spain, in February 2016. The organization's director, Alfredo Romero, was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2017.[4] The organization has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 and 2016.[10][11]

See also

References
  1. "Antecedentes | Foro Penal Venezolano". Foro Penal (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  2. "¿Qué es el Foro Penal?". Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  3. "La juez forzada a renunciar". Semana. 16 April 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  4. Damiano, Daniela (23 January 2018). "FORO PENAL BRINDA APOYO JURÍDICO A PERSONAS DETENIDAS ARBITRARIAMENTE". Amnistía Internacional. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  5. "¿Qué es el Foro Penal?". Foro Penal. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  6. "Monica Fernández abogada del Foro Penal Venezolano sufre atentado". Foro Penal. 5 January 2008. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  7. "ALFREDO ROMERO". Defiendo DDHH. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  8. Lozano, Daniel (13 November 2017). "Salvados: la entrevista más perseguida de Jordi Évole no atrapó a Nicolás Maduro". El Mundo. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  9. "Maduro responde a las acusaciones de tener presos políticos: "En Venezuela hay políticos que han cometido delitos"". La Sexta. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  10. "Foro Penal Venezolano, nominado al Premio Nobel de la Paz". La Patilla. 22 February 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  11. "Foro Penal Venezolano nominado al Premio Nobel de la Paz - El Carabobeño". El Carabobeño (in Spanish). 4 October 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
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