GENEVA - The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro (Indonesia), has appointed Sofía Macher Batanero (Peru) to serve as chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The expert succeeds Marta Valiñas of Portugal. She joins Alex Neve (Canada) and María Eloísa Quintero (Argentina/Mexico) who were appointed in December 2025.
The Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela was established on 27 September 2019 by United Nations Human Rights Council resolution 42/25 to assess alleged human rights violations committed in the country since 2014. With resolution 57/36, the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission was extended by the Council until October 2026.
In its most recent update to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2026, the Mission noted that Venezuela's repressive State machinery, built up over many years, remained operational following the abrupt apprehension of former President Nicolás Maduro by United States forces on 3 January. Since then, the Mission received reports of at least 87 new politically motivated detentions, clearly indicating that the practice of silencing dissent persists under the current Government.
This followed a period of intense repression between September to December 2025 during which the Mission documented 135 arbitrary arrests and a continued pattern of torture and ill-treatment of detainees in prisons, detention centres and "secure houses," the Mission said.
Biography
Ms. Macher Batanero is a human rights defender and sociologist with more than 30 years of experience in transitional justice, reparations, and gender issues. She has investigated human rights violations, designed national reparations programmes, and advised truth commissions and United Nations mechanisms. With a PhD and Master's in Sociology and Gender Studies from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Ms. Macher Batanero has contributed to international initiatives with the Organization of American States, the United Nations Development Programme and UN Women, and has served in leadership roles for truth commissions in Libya, Yemen, Colombia and the Solomon Islands. In Peru, Ms. Macher Batanero has held prominent public positions shaping memory and reparations policies, including as president of the Reparations Council and commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
