CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela’s decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court is gravely concerning and will only serve to reinforce impunity for human rights violations, a UN-backed probe said Monday.

Venezuela will pull out of the ICC’s over “geographical bias”, the nation’s foreign minister said Friday amid an ongoing ICC investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed under ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s government.

The UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela said the move raised profound concerns about the government’s commitment to accountability.

“It comes at a critical juncture for the country, when what is urgently needed is the realisation of the rights of Venezuelans to justice, truth, and a proper reckoning with the past,” the probe said in a statement.

The UN Human Rights Council set up the fact-finding mission in 2019, and tasked it with assessing alleged human rights violations committed since 2014.

Nicolas Maduro ruled Venezuela with an iron fist from March 2013. Following his capture by US forces in January, the country is now run by interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, who had been Maduro’s vice president from 2018 onwards.

The fact-finding mission said the current administration had so far taken no meaningful action to progress investigations into the widely documented gross violations and international crimes committed over more than a decade.

The current authorities are now seeking to evade international processes intended to spearhead that national-level accountability, it added.

The ICC tries individuals for the world’s worst crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC is currently probing alleged crimes against humanity committed during crackdowns on protesters in Venezuela since 2014.

In December 2025, Venezuela’s parliament took steps to repeal the Rome Statute, the court’s founding text, after the tribunal closed its Caracas office citing fruitless government talks.