Centre for Action and Defense of Human Rights
The Center for Action and Defense of Human Rights (CADEF) is an organisation dedicated to the promotion and defense of human rights in Cojedes, in the northwest of Venezuela. It seeks to educate, train and provide the necessary tools for the empowerment of new generations of human rights defenders. CADEF monitors, and documents human rights violations in the context of the ongoing national crisis in Venezuela. It organises workshops, campaigns and advocacy activities, that help social and legal challenges to the government in this environment.
HRDs have been working under restrictive policies for many years: the Maduro administration has continued the work begun by Chávez in restricting civil space and delegitimising HRDs, repeatedly accusing them of undermining the Venezuelan democracy with the alleged collaboration of the United States. HRDs are discredited and criminalised by state-controlled media (television, radio, print media) on a weekly basis.
