Geneva, November 12, 2024.- The State of Nicaragua will be evaluated in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations Human Rights Council tomorrow, Wednesday, November 13. The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) urges the participating States of this space to make forceful recommendations in the face of the systematic violations that the State of Nicaragua continues to commit to the detriment of justice, peace, constitutional order, and human rights in the context of the violent repression carried out after the protests of April 2018.

During the last four-year cycle, Nicaragua has shown total contempt for the recommendations of international human rights protection mechanisms, as well as the resolutions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, maintaining an environment of repression and violation of fundamental rights, particularly for human rights defenders, women, journalists, and indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.

In Nicaragua, human rights defenders are the target of state repression, despite the fact that the state claims to promote, defend, and protect constitutional guarantees and human rights. International organizations have documented at least 2,000 arbitrary detentions, and cases of torture and forced disappearances against people considered opponents, activists and critical journalists. According to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners of Nicaragua, 46 people are currently deprived of liberty for political reasons, including three indigenous leaders from the Caribbean Coast: Nancy Henríquez, Brooklyn Rivera, and Steadman Fagot.

The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) has also highlighted the expulsion and deprivation of Nicaraguan nationality of people considered critical of the regime, as well as the confiscation of their property and the restriction of access to Nicaraguan territory, in addition to facts and circumstances that constitute crimes against humanity. “particularly, persecution for political reasons.”

Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples continue to suffer invasions by settlers (non-indigenous third parties) without adequate state protection. The lack of implementation of the sanitation process for the eviction of illegal occupants has generated forced cohabitation between settlers and indigenous people, which has resulted in violent conflicts, forced displacements and murders of members of indigenous communities. In the first six months of 2024 alone, 643 cases of human rights violations were registered in these territories.

In addition, the State grants concessions for mining and agro-industrial activities without free, prior and informed consultations, which causes serious environmental damage and violates the rights of indigenous communities. These communities rarely benefit from the profits generated by such projects, thus perpetuating poverty and exclusion.

The absence of effective promotion and protection of women’s rights remains an alarming concern, especially in the face of the increase in cases of violence and femicide in the country. The lack of adequate response by the authorities to complaints of gender-based violence discourages victims from seeking justice. According to the Observatory of Catholics for the Right to Decide, so far in 2024 there have been 63 femicides.

It should be noted that government policies on gender are designed centrally, without consultation or effective participation of feminist organizations and rights defenders, who instead face state repression, criminalization, and harassment. This restriction of women’s participation in decision-making has resulted in a lack of sex education programmes and effective prevention of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

In the area of the rights to freedom of expression and association, the Nicaraguan State has approved regulations, such as the Cybercrimes Law and its recent reform and the Foreign Agents Law, which limit fundamental freedoms by allowing state surveillance and the criminalization of activism and journalism. As a result, at least 278 independent journalists have left the country for fear of reprisals, according to the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED).

Likewise, through these laws, the State has annulled the legal status of more than 5,000 organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provided health, education, and support services to vulnerable communities. With the disappearance of these organizations, entire communities have been left without access to social and health programs that depended on the work of NGOs, generating a direct impact on the well-being of the most vulnerable sectors.

Finally, the State of Nicaragua has a confrontational, non-collaborative stance and repeatedly despises spaces for dialogue in the name of “national sovereignty”, in addition to its rejection of accountability in the international arena. The State has ignored recommendations from international protection bodies and mechanisms and rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in disregard of its international obligations.

It has also expelled international organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) from the country, and has withdrawn from the Organization of American States (OAS). Finally, in the last two years Nicaragua has not submitted to the reviews of United Nations Treaty Bodies, such as the Committee Against Torture (CAT) or the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and in other cases, it has withdrawn as happened during the interactive dialogue with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. making unfounded accusations against the treaty body and its members.

For all of the above, within the framework of the Fourth Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) urges the member states of the Human Rights Council to issue firm and effective recommendations that oblige the State of Nicaragua to comply with its international commitments in the field of human rights. Only

through coordinated and determined action will it be possible to generate true accountability and contribute to restoring justice, peace and respect for fundamental rights in the country.

We demand that the State of Nicaragua cease political persecution, immediately release all persons deprived of liberty for political reasons, restore the independence of the powers of the State, allow the work of human rights organizations and comply with its international commitments.