Revista Temas de Derecho Constitucional

147 INTRODUCTION I was invited to write this essay while I was on sabbatical at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. At the time, Venezuela imploded and over 3 million refugees and migrants fled to neighbouring countries, including Costa Rica. One morning, I took an Uber ride to the Inter American Court of Human Rights and my driver happened to be a former judge from Venezuela who used to teach at the Law Faculty. He wept as he described how he lost his house while three of his children had fled to different Latin American countries, and the fourth to Europe. He had not seen his daughter in over a year. His entire life’s project had eviscerated beyond remedy. I was struck at the de facto crime of forced family dissolution within Venezuela which lay at the base of the disintegration of the civil society. I was equally astounded at the inability of the international community, i.a. the UN Security Council and the OAS, to respond effectively to restore the rule of law and peaceful coexistence within the region. 2 The urgency of accessibility of asylum for Venezuelans in search of a peaceful durable solution to their exodus is self-evident. Asylum itself may be considered to be a peace mechanism. 3 Judge Antonio Cancado Trindade specifically identified protection from displacement as part of the right to peace. 4 Both Cuba (Article 19) and Nicaragua’s constitutions (article 3) guarantee 2 The UN Security Council discussed the situation in Venezuela on February 26, 2019, during the 8472nd meeting. 3 Consider Colombia’sDecree 2 (2013): QueColombia, como integrantede laComunidad Internacional, debe aunar esfuerzos para mantener la paz y prevenir los efectos indeseados de los conflictos armados y la intolerancia en el mundo, mediante la adecuación jurídica completa de las leyes internas a los instrumentos internacionales que regulan los derechos y obligaciones de los refugiados, estableciendo normas básicas para su tratamiento. See Conclusion on the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum No. 94 (LIII) – 2002 Executive Committee 53rd session. Contained in United Nations General Assembly document A/AC.96/973 and document no. 12A (A/57/12/ Add.1) By UNHCR Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme | 08 October 2002. 4 Antonio A. Cancado Trindade, ‘Some Reflections on the Justiciability of the Right to Peace, on the occasion of the United Nations Retaking of the Subject by the United Nations’, Revista do Instituto Brasilero de Direitos Humanos ANo 11 Vol 11 No. 11 2011. See also UN General Assembly, Declaration on the Right to Peace : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly , 2 February 2017, A/RES/71/189, available at: https://www. refworld.org/docid/589c72134.html [accessed 4 September 2019]