OAS announces it will apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Nicaragua after learning that crimes against humanity have been committed in that country

OAS announces it will apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Nicaragua after learning that crimes against humanity have been committed in that country

Washington DC, December 28, 2018 – The Organization of American States (OAS) will begin the process of applying the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Nicaragua, declared Secretary-General Luis Almagro yesterday, after the Vice President of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), Esmeralda Arosamena de Troitiño, presented a report produced by independent experts from various disciplines that reveals that actions committed by the State of Nicaragua against the peacefully-demonstrating population could be considered crimes against humanity.

Almagro explained that the application will begin with the convening of the Permanent Council, pursuant to Article 20 of the Charter, which establishes that when an alteration of the constitutional order occurs in any Member State that seriously impacts its democratic order, a collective assessment of the situation can be performed and related decisions adopted.

“We are required to begin the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Nicaragua. The solution is still political and diplomatic, and we have the Inter-American regulatory instruments to address them,” Almagro said during an extraordinary session of the Permanent Council held in Washington, DC.

The Secretary-General of the OAS emphasized that at the beginning of the application of the Charter there is also an opportunity for the government of Nicaragua to reconsider its actions. Eight months after the beginning of the human rights and socio-political crisis in Nicaragua, at least 325 people have lost their lives as a result of the repression of demonstrators and more than 2,000 have been injured, according to the IACHR, while another 50,000 have had to flee the country and around 565 have been imprisoned.

During the last month, the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo launched a new escalation of repression against organizations defending human rights and media outlets by arbitrarily closing them and criminalizing journalists. Even the IACHR missions working in Nicaragua were expelled last week, accused of being “interventionist” and “biased.”

Under the current context of repression in Nicaragua, diplomatic representatives of several countries on the continent urged the Nicaraguan government to stop the repression and allow the return of the IACHR missions to the country; adhere to the recommendations of human rights experts; resume the national dialogue in a committed way; and reform the electoral system in order to hold early elections.

The United States of America, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile also requested the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, whose ultimate consequence could be the suspension of Nicaragua’s right to participate in the OAS.

Paula Bertol, Argentina’s ambassador to the OAS, stressed that “the lack of democracy and freedom in Nicaragua” has been exposed in the experts’ reports, and that is the reason why “many of our States are thinking about applying the Democratic Charter.”  “Many of our States are also considering an extraordinary consultation meeting because we are worried about what is happening in Nicaragua, because we don’t want more people to die as a result of the abuse of State power,” she added.

The ambassador of Chile to the OAS, Jaime Francisco Alliende, also called for “a solution to the political crisis in Nicaragua to be developed according to the principles and values ​​of Inter-American instruments, including the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” maintaining that when faced with a rupture of the rule of law, “all OAS Member States must raise their voices to call upon that regime to accept a peaceful and democratic solution to this serious crisis.”

The Vice President of the IACHR also supported the activation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter against the Nicaraguan government: “The IACHR calls on the OAS Member States to reject violations of human rights and acts of repression against the Nicaraguan population, and to consider compliance with the conditions that make the Inter-American Democratic Charter applicable to the country,” Arosemena de Troitiño said.

Future actions

In his speech, the Secretary-General also explained that future actions the OAS will take include asking the IACHR to denounce the crimes documented in its report before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and to ask the Permanent Council to request a meeting with the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) to present them the report on crimes against humanity.

The latter action would also permit the UN Security Council to remit the investigation of these crimes to the International Criminal Court, an organ of justice of which Nicaragua is not currently a party.

“If crimes against humanity continue to be committed, we will ask the States Parties of the OAS, as well as all democratic States, that under the concept of ‘universal justice,’ the officials appointed as instructors and executors in the experts’ report be detained and tried in their respective territories for these crimes, thus activating universal justice,” Almagro warned.

The ambassador of Nicaragua to the OAS, Luis Alvarado, ignored the report presented in the OAS and accused several countries of being “interventionist” and “biased” for requesting justice and democracy for Nicaragua. He also affirmed that Almagro did not deserve to be the Secretary-General of the OAS, an organization that he tried to disqualify by using the words of the late Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, describing it as a “Ministry of the Colonies.”  The representative of Venezuela was the only one to openly endorse Alvarado’s speech.

The report of the GIEI

In its final report drafted after six months of work in the Central American country, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) determined that “the State of Nicaragua has engaged in conduct which, in accordance with international law, must be considered crimes against humanity,” according to what was made known by the IACHR experts last week.

The report, presented in Washington, DC two days after the group was expelled from Nicaragua by the authorities, indicates that the crimes committed with the consent of the highest levels of the Nicaraguan government, were assassinations, incarceration, persecution, rape, torture, and forced disappearance.

The foregoing was affirmed following an arduous process of collecting information through direct interviews with relatives of victims and surviving victims, visits to and observations conducted in locations where the violent incidents occurred, meetings with journalists, examination of documents such as videos, photographs, and material from [traditional] media and social media. The State refused to provide them with information, despite the fact that the authorities had accepted that the GIEI’s primary mission was to assist the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Nicaragua to clarify the violent incidents that occurred at the beginning of the crisis.

The experts found that between April 18 and May 30, at least 109 people were assassinated and another 1,400 were wounded as a result of a “generalized and systematic attack against the civilian population” that was demonstrating against the government.

“The clearest and most serious pattern of behavior consisted of the use of firearms, including weapons of war, directly against people who participated in protest actions,” the report states, pointing to the National Police as the force in command of this conduct, which was accompanied in its actions by parastatal armed groups with the support of local political authorities.

For this same reason, GIEI recommends investigating President Ortega as being responsible for these events, in his capacity as supreme commander of the National Police.

Another human rights violation described in the GIEI report is the State of Nicaragua’s violation of its duty to ensure due diligence in the investigation of the violent deaths that occurred between April 18 and May 30, 2018.

“Out of 109 cases of violent deaths registered by GIEI, only nine have been prosecuted, which means that 100 still remain shrouded in impunity,” said Claudia Paz y Paz during the presentation of the report.

Even so, in the nine cases that have been prosecuted, six relate to victims with some relationship to the State of Nicaragua or government party. “In no case have trials begun against State security forces, despite the various evidence that indicates their possible responsibility,” the Guatemalan expert lamented.

 

Main photo: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS.

Missions of the IACHR in Nicaragua expelled by the government

Washington D.C., December 20, 2018. Two missions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Nicaragua tasked with monitoring human rights violations and helping the authorities to clarify the violent events that transpired in April and May 2018 during the beginning of massive demonstrations left Nicaragua yesterday after the government suspended their visit and forced them to leave the country.

The expulsion of the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI, for its initials in Spanish), which arrived in the country on June 24, 2018, and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI, for its initials in Spanish), which began its work in Nicaragua on July 2, 2018 – both in response to recommendations presented by the IACHR in the report “Serious Violations of Human Rights in the Context of the Social Protests in Nicaragua” – occurred a day before GIEI presented a report on their six months of work, and eight months after the beginning of the human rights crisis caused by the brutal governmental repression of citizen protests that has left at least 325 people dead, more than 2,000 injured, and around 565 political prisoners.

The government’s resolution also prevents Special Rapporteurs and officials of the IACHR from conducting a series of visits that were already scheduled for the first quarter of 2019.

“The most affected [by the expulsion] are the victims and their relatives, because the main value of our work is to be able to bring the victims closer to the truth and justice. That is our deepest regret,” MESENI Coordinator Ana María Tello declared moments after learning of the authorities’ decision.

A MESENI report published Wednesday morning warned of “the intensification of a fourth stage of State repression” characterized, among other things, by the staggering of repressive measures and actions aimed at weakening the role played by human rights defenders and civil society organizations and the arbitrary expulsion or threat of expulsion of naturalized persons or permanent residents due to their participation in protests.

Months before, on August 31st, the government of Nicaragua expelled a mission of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) shortly after it presented a report on the serious human rights violations committed by State forces within the context of the protests.

The reasons

Members of MESENI and the four GIEI experts – Sofia Macher, Claudia Paz y Paz, Amérigo Incalcaterra, and Pablo Parenti – attended a meeting on Wednesday with Foreign Minister Denis Moncada, during which he informed them of the unilateral governmental decision.

The letter Moncada read to the IACHR officials, later published by pro-government media, stated that the missions had not met their objectives and that “the IACHR, MESENI, GIEI, and OHCHR have become a platform for disseminating false information to promote international sanctions” against Nicaragua. In addition, it notes that the members of the GIEI did not respond to a counterproposal from the government on its Protocol of Action and that, therefore, they carried out “a series of actions in violation of the terms of the agreement” and national laws.

Incalcaterra later explained that the non-compliance with the Protocol of Action alleged by Moncada is “false” because all State communications were answered by the experts. “[The authorities] have not demanded that GIEI behave differently or that the our work be done in a specific way,” he alleged, instead denouncing that they never were given access to judicial files, official information that would allow them to fully comply with their mandate, or judicial hearings, even though the latter are public according to Nicaraguan law.

“The reasons they have given us do not satisfy us in any way.  We think those are arguments that have been developed, in the specific case of GIEI, so as to prevent us from presenting the report on our six months of work that was scheduled for tomorrow,” the expert added, also declining to provide details of the report, in light of the fact that the authorities had “suggested” he not do so in Nicaragua.

MESENI’s Tello also explained to local journalists that her mission sent more than 70 diplomatic notes to the government to request information or meetings with authorities, and that none of them had been answered. “There was never pressure from the government because we did not have a dialogue with them,” she said.

They will continue monitoring

The work of the IACHR that began in April 2018 launched with a working visit May 17-21, after which the report “Serious Human Right Violations in the Context of Social Protests in Nicaragua” was published. Since then, MESENI has drafted dozens of weekly reports on its monitoring work; the IACHR has processed precautionary measures for more than 100 people; and various Special Rapporteurs of that regional human rights body have visited the country to evaluate the current situation.

In addition, the Executive Secretary of the IACHR, Paulo Abraõ, has discussed the situation of Nicaragua in diverse spaces, such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and United Nations Human Rights Council. The IACHR also included four public hearings on Nicaragua in its 170th Period of Sessions, the last of which was held on December 6, 2018.

Ana María Tello stressed that neither the IACHR nor MESENI will stop monitoring the human rights situation in Nicaragua, although now they will have to do so from Washington, DC. Furthermore, experts of the GIEI announced that they would release their report from Washington, DC.

“The IACHR reiterates that the situation in Nicaragua will continue to be a priority, reaffirms its commitment to the victims of human rights violations, and will continue to monitor compliance by the Nicaraguan State with the international human rights obligations it has voluntarily assumed,” the Commission declared in a recent statement.

The International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) condemns and rejects the decision of the State of Nicaragua to expel the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

This arbitrary decision of the State of Nicaragua not only violates the agreements established with IACHR representatives, but also deepens the defenselessness of Nicaraguans at a time in which violence, criminalization, and harassment are intensifying against activists, human rights defenders, the media, and the general populace who dissent from the dictatorial regime.

We observe with concern a clear desire of the government to impose a state of terror in the country that violates the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international and regional human rights instruments.

We urgently call on the entire international community to continue to monitor the crisis in Nicaragua and press for the protection and guarantee of the Nicaraguan people’s human rights.

As an organization that promotes and defends human rights in the Americas, we reiterate our willingness and commitment to denounce and fight against all acts that undermine the chance to build democracy, justice, and freedom in Nicaragua.

STATEMENT: Aggressions against human rights organizations in Nicaragua continue

Washington, D.C. December 14, 2018. The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race & Equality) strongly condemns the violent and illegal forceful entries of the Nicaraguan police into the offices of the Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos [Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights] (CENIDH), Instituto de Liderazgo de Las Segovias [Las Segovias Leadership Institute] (ILLS), Centro de Información y Servicios de Asesoría en Salud [Center for Health Information and Advisory Services] (CISAS), Fundación para la Promoción y el Desarrollo Municipal Popol Na [Popol Na Foundation for Municipal Promotion and Development], Fundación del Río [River Foundation], Instituto para el Desarrollo y la Democracia [Institute for Development and Democracy] (IPADE), and the Instituto de Estudios Estratégicos y Políticas Públicas [Institute of Strategic Studies and Public Policy] (IEEPP). These forceful entries occurred beginning early Friday morning. All of the organizations had their legal status arbitrarily invalidated by the Nicaraguan Assembly. Race and Equality condemns these events as well the violent assault and looting of the newsrooms of the digital publication Confidencial, where the TV studios of the programs Esta Noche and Esta Semana are also located.

Representatives from the organizations reported that in order to break into their offices, the police agents abused their authority and physically assaulted the security guards in each location. They also broke down the doors, destroyed the furniture, and illegally seized documents, computers, and even vehicles.

Given this unprecedented attack in recent Nicaraguan history, we express our opposition to the arbitrary actions of the Nicaraguan authorities, as well as the impunity they enjoy when violating the fundamental freedoms of association and peaceful assembly of human rights defenders, the media and dissident activists. The actions of the authorities serve the purposes of the Ortega Murillo dictatorship and demonstrate an abrupt restriction of spaces for democratic participation and political rights of the groups that demand justice and peace in Nicaragua.

The human rights defenders involved are persistently attacked, criminalized, and persecuted. Additionally, the illegal takeovers carried out by the police not only violate the right to property and privacy of the defenders, but they are a forceful expression of the totalitarianism and politics of fear that the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have installed in the Central American country.

We demand that the Ortega government restore the legal status of the aforementioned organizations as well as return their stolen property.

These attacks are evidence of the state of repression and human rights crisis that the people of Nicaragua are facing. For this reason, we urge the international community to address these acts that violate the well-being of every human being and make it impossible to build democratic societies that seek to achieve welfare, justice and peace.

PERSECUTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN NICARAGUA: LEGAL STATUS OF CENIDH, HAGAMOS DEMOCRACIA, IEEPP, CISAS, AND FIVE OTHER NGOs INVALIDATED

Washington, DC, December 12, 2018 – During the last two weeks, the Nicaraguan government escalated the persecution and criminalization of human rights defenders in the country by utilizing the parliamentary majority of the FSLN, the party of the government, to invalidate the legal status of four human rights organizations with a long history of human rights defense and democratic institutions in the country, with the last two being Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos [Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights] (CENIDH) and Asociación Hagamos Democracia [Let’s Do Democracy Association].

 This is “a decision to eliminate anyone who opposes, who criticizes the viciousness of the repression that is being driven” by the authorities, declared Vilma Núñez, President of CENIDH, after learning of the decision of the National Assembly (NA), although she assured that the “commitment to continue accompanying the Nicaraguan people in whatever form is not dissolved by an illegal and arbitrary resolution of organs that have no autonomy, that have no independence.”

On November 29, the NA invalidated the legal status of the Centro de Información y Servicios de Asesoría en Salud [Center for Health Information and Advisory Services] (CISAS) after immigration authorities stripped its Director, human rights defender and feminist Ana Quirós Víquez, of her Nicaraguan citizenship and deported her to Costa Rica.  Later, December 11 brought the invalidation of the legal status of the Instituto de Estudios Estratégicos y Políticas Públicas [Institute of Strategic Studies and Public Policy] (IEEPP), a think-tank led by academic and activist Félix Maradiaga, who had to go into self-imposed exile in the United States due to the criminalization to which he was subjected.

The four organizations – which have had an even more decisive role during the last eight months of sociopolitical and human rights crises – are accused without any grounds of having committed illegal acts, violated the public order, and carried out activities that are not appropriate to the goals for which they were established.  However, the authorities committed arbitrary acts such as [holding] secret, expedited trials and did not permit said organizations’ legal representatives to argue anything in their own defense.

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“There’s CENIDH for a while”

CENIDH was founded in 1990 as a center for defending and promoting human rights in Nicaragua; two years later, it obtained its legal status.  Today, during the morning of December 12, at the request of the Director of the Department of Registration and Control of Associations in the Ministry of Government, Gustavo Sirias, the National Assembly received as an urgent proceeding the proposal to invalidate the legal status of this organization.

According to Sirias’ statement of motives, CENIDH was leaderless because [the term of] its Board of Directors had expired; it had not reported its financial statements for 2017; and additionally, had “utilized the organizational schema to raise, receive, channel, and facilitate funds to alter the public order and carry out actions to destabilize the country.”

Although the foregoing arguments were endorsed by FSLN Members of Parliament, the opposing Members of Parliament in the parliamentary plenary denied those accusations and insisted that this was one more arbitrary act committed by the Nicaraguan government against human rights defenders.

María Fernanda Flores, a Member of Parliament from the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), maintained that the Nicaraguan Assembly was “leaving defenseless an entire population who through CENIDH denounces on a daily basis the abuses and violations of their rights,” while Member of Parliament Brooklyn Rivera of the indigenous Yatama Party said that the invalidation of CENIDH’s legal status in fact served to deepen the human rights crisis that Nicaragua had been experiencing since April.  “We indigenous peoples have been witness to the difficult and thoroughly dedicated work performed by Dr. Núñez and her team.  She has truly defended all Nicaraguans – Sandinistas, liberals, conservatives, campesinos, women, indigenous people, everyone,” Rivera declared.

Finally, the invalidation of CENIDH’s legal status was approved, with 70 votes in favor and 17 opposed.  Núñez, as president of the organization, described the initiative as “malign” and expressed her anger to the media outlets that accompanied her to the institution’s headquarters after the decree was approved.

 Vilma Núñez, president of CENIDH, submitted a report on Monday, December 10 on the six months of civic resistance to governmental repression in Nicaragua.

“There’s CENIDH for a while, there’s commitment on the part of each and every one of the human rights defenders, of its Board of Directors, of its founding members, but above all of the team that on a daily basis confronts violence, discrimination, [and] abuses committed by the government,” declared Núñez, backed by the CENIDH defenders.

With regard to the reasons presented today by the Ministry of Government (MIGOB) to the National Assembly, Núñez revealed that on March 23 the organization had submitted its financial statement to MIGOB for fiscal 2017, although they were not given proof of legality; and with regard to the Board of Directors, she said that it expired on April 25 and that the assembly to elect new authorities had to be suspended due to the critical situation transpiring in the country during those days, when the crisis had just begun.

“The Board of Directors was elected and on November 30, 2018 we sent them the certified minutes and [other] requirements.  They did not want to sign, they did not want to acknowledge them as having been submitted, and they gave us a list of 15 requirements with which they said we had to comply in order for them to accept it,” explained Núñez, who indicated that CENIDH had not violated any of its By-laws and that all of its actions have transpired within the framework of the law.

“We are prepared to confront and reject any arbitrary action, any invasion of our physical institution they wish to undertake; by doing so they will not limit our commitment,” emphasized the President of CENIDH, who recently turned 80 years old.

Persecution of defenders

This week, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CENIDH presented a report entitled Grave Human Rights Violations Perpetrated by the State of Nicaragua describing the rights violated during six months of civic resistance to governmental repression.

The report declares that the State of Nicaragua violated the human right to defend rights, because a pattern exists of attacks aimed at human rights defenders, journalists, community leaders, lawyers, students, and activists who have been victims of actions such as intimidation, threats, assassinations, detentions, illegal raids, smear campaigns, defamation, [and] criminalization, among others, with the goal of “silencing their voices and preventing them from exercising their right to inform, protest, express themselves, and defend human rights.”

A number of days ago, CENIDH asked for permission to march in commemoration of Human Rights Day, complying with the unconstitutional police order regarding protests.  Permission was not only denied, but the police alleged as one of its arguments that the organization was being investigated regarding the April incidents.

One day after the Nicaraguan Assembly invalidated the legal status of CENIDH and Hagamos Democracia [Let’s Do Democracy], it also invalidated the legal representation of five other organizations that defend human rights, nature, and freedom of the press: Instituto de Liderazgo de Las Segovias [Las Segovias Leadership Institute] (ILLS), whose director, Haydeé Castillo, has suffered repeated persecution, threats, and even immigration detention; the environmental [organization] Fundación del Río [River Foundation], which had been threatened for disseminating information and denouncing arbitrary actions regarding the fire in the Reserva Indio Maíz [Corn Indian Reserve]; Instituto para el Desarrollo y la Democracia [Institute for Development and Democracy] (IPADE), one of the independent national organizations that is best-trained to observe elections; Fundación para la Promoción y el Desarrollo Municipal Popol Na [Popol Na Foundation for Municipal Promotion and Development], a leader in the ‘anti-canal’ movement, whose director, Mónica López Baltodano, was forced to go into self-imposed exile in Costa Rica due to the constant threats she faced in the country; and the Centro de Investigación de la Comunicación [Communication Investigation Center] (CINCO).

DECLARATION

The International Institute of Race, Equality, and Human Rights (Race & Equality) strongly condemns and rejects the arbitrary decision of the State of Nicaragua issued today in the plenary of the National Assembly to invalidate the legal status of organizations that promote and defend human rights and democracy.

The legislative decree to invalidate the legal status of ILLS, Fundación del Río, IPADE, Fundación Popol Na, [and] CINCO, as well as the one that preceded it targeting CENIDH, Hagamos Democracia, IEEPP, and CISAS, demonstrate the state of repression and grave violation of freedom of expression, participation, association, and peaceful assembly of which the Nicaraguan people, human rights defenders, and independent media are victims today as dissidents of the dictatorial plans being imposed by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo on the Nicaraguan people.

We reject the statements made by the FSLN Members of Parliament in the National Assembly, who irresponsibly accuse organizations of human rights defenders that have tirelessly demanded justice, democracy and truth for the regime’s victims – as the Nicaraguan people and international community know – as being “terrorists” and “coup participants.”

We observe with concern the extremely grave consequences of the absence of rule of law in Nicaragua due to the actions of the current government, which far from guaranteeing, safeguarding, and protecting the people’s human rights, have obstinately persisted in restricting civil society’s legitimate possibility to freely participate in social construction, which opens new, repugnant, and deliberate gaps of inequality, exclusion, and discrimination.

Likewise, we declare that this determination of the Ortega-Murillo regime will never ensure the ‘invisibilization’ of the terror, vulnerability, and violence being visited upon the country for eight months now, aimed at perpetuating the impunity in which grave violations of Nicaraguans’ fundamental rights continue to be committed in the form of assassinations, persecution, and intimidation to which they have been submitted due to their denunciations.

We at Race & Equality are convinced that without a new political and social agreement there will be no peaceful resolution to the crisis; therefore, we demand that the State of Nicaragua respect and guarantee Nicaraguans’ rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly.  Likewise, we urge [governmental] respect for the guarantees of due process and the right to a defense that today are brazenly violated by the National Assembly through its sanctioning of said organizations based on unilateral reports that arbitrarily accuse those institutions of carrying out activities that differ from their objectives and missions.

All of these incidents encourage us to raise an international alarm regarding the situation in Nicaragua.  We invite the international community, human rights protection organs, and the various manifestations of civil society to redouble their efforts so as to ensure the prompt return of democracy, justice, and peace to Nicaragua.

Nicaraguan human rights defenders denounce new escalation of repression and the IACHR reiterates its commitment to the population and NGOs that promote human rights

Washington, D.C. December 6th, 2018. A new escalation of repression by the government of Nicaragua seeks to dismantle any space of criticism and to silence the voices of demonstrators, journalists, women, activists, and all those who defend freedom, demand democracy, and claim justice for the victims of human rights violations in the country. This was the main message that a group of Nicaraguan human rights defenders presented before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) last week during the thematic hearing “Repression and Violation of Human Rights in Nicaragua,” held in during the 170th period of sessions of the IACHR.

Human rights defenders of fourteen national and international organizations, including Race and Equality, requested that the IACHR and the international community “take all necessary actions so that the repression stops in Nicaragua and also to help find a democratic solution to the crisis.”

The State of Nicaragua, which was invited to participate in this hearing, the fourth to be held since the current human rights crisis began eight months ago, did not show up. The State argued that it was not appropriate to conduct a hearing as a monitoring mechanism for the country. For civil society organizations, the non-appearance of the State of Nicaragua reflects its lack of willingness to be accountable to international bodies.

Paulo Abrāo, Executive Secretary of the IACHR, assured that the situation in Nicaragua is being addressed “at a priority level” because a police state has been installed in the country. “There is not a single day in Nicaragua in which the IACHR does not receive reports of human rights violations in the context of the crisis,” he lamented.

Current situation of the country

As of now, human rights organizations and the IACHR count 325 people killed as a result of repression, as well as more than 600 political prisoners. Additionally, 200 health professionals and 40 of higher education have been unfairly dismissed for doing their work, and over 40,000 people have been forcibly displaced to Costa Rica. The Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNIDES, for its initials in Spanish) estimates that 417,000 people have been dismissed or suspended from their jobs as a result of the crisis.

Madeleine Caracas, a 21-year-old woman member of the University Coalition and currently sheltered in Costa Rica, said that since late September, the public force has prevented civil demonstrations. This “inhibits the legitimate right of people to express themselves and demonstrates the authoritarianism that we are facing.” Additionally, she revealed that there are more than a hundred students who have been expelled from their universities for having participated in protests and taken over public universities.

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The Nicaraguan Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IND, for its initials in Spanish) has counted more than 370 attacks on women within the context of crisis. This includes two cases of rape, two murders of transgender women, and 102 arbitrary arrests. Forty-eight women are still detained, some of whom have been convicted, some have not been charged or accused of any crime, and a few have a criminal case against them in process, detailed Caracas.

The young woman also highlighted the continued persecution of human rights defenders, like Ana Cecilia Juguer, promoter of the Permanent Commission of Human Rights (CPDH, for its initials in Spanish), who has been detained for more than 20 days in El Chipote; Haydeé Castillo, who was held in the airport and imposed with an immigration restriction; and the most recent case of Ana Quirós, who was expelled from the country and arbitrarily stripped of her Nicaraguan nationality and whose organization’s legal personality was canceled.

“It is evident and worrisome that the people who defend human rights in Nicaragua are one of the main targets of the repression strategy implemented by the Ortega-Murillo government. They do not allow us to carry out our defense work, we are persecuted, we are stigmatized, we are denied information, among other aggressions,” Caracas denounced.

Marcos Carmona, of the CPDH, spoke in detail about illegal detentions, the criminal proceedings against demonstrators, and violations of due process guarantees.

“CPDH has been in charge of the defense of 72 trials, involving 178 people. Thirty-five people have been sentenced to more than 24 years for terrorism, 20 people have obtained their freedom, and 102 people are still waiting for the judge’s ruling,” Carmona said, stating also that “all these processes have violated constitutional guarantees and due process since the moment of detention.”

Carmona also emphasized that “no policeman, no paramilitary, no supportive party leader or any authority has been prosecuted” for the crimes that were committed since April as part of the government’s repressive response to civic demonstrations.

Vilma Núñez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH, for its initials in Spanish), denounced that political prisoners are not allowed to have access to their lawyers or be accompanied by human rights defenders, and are denied access to medical care. Additionally, their families face obstacles when they try to visit them and accompany them during the trial.

Núñez reported that six peasant leaders are “held in maximum security cells, without access to light or ventilation, living with pests and without access to adequate toilets” and others have been forced to self-exile as a result of the persecution.

She also highlighted the censorship and criminalization faced by different Nicaraguan media and independent journalists. “Since the beginning of the crisis, repression has been characterized by repressive measures against freedom of expression,” Núñez said, mentioning the escalation of attacks against journalists and even members of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church.

Requests

The organizations participating in the hearing made seven petitions to the IACHR, among them, to continue monitoring the situation in Nicaragua, to include Nicaragua in Chapter IV of its Annual Report for the year 2018, and to require the State of Nicaragua to provide adequate conditions so that the Follow-up Mechanism for Nicaragua (Meseni, for its initials in Spanish) and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI, for its initials in Spanish) can carry out their work without restrictions.

In addition, they asked the IACHR to demand full access to judicial proceedings for family members and human rights organizations, to request periodic information from the American States on the displaced Nicaraguans, and to request that the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) carry out periodic sessions on the human rights situation in Nicaragua.

Antonia Urrejola, Nicaragua’s rapporteur for the IACHR, replied that the monitoring of the Nicaraguan situation will remain constant, that this week they will discuss the introduction of Nicaragua in Chapter IV, and that a report on the situation of Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica will be published soon. Also, Urrejola assured that the Meseni will be strengthen and that the Commissioners and Special Rapporteurs will continue to make visits to Nicaragua. They already have a plan for this in the first quarter of 2019-.

“I simply want to insist that we are not going to stop accompanying human rights organizations and the Nicaraguan people in the situation they are living nowadays. They will count on us permanently, have no doubts about it,” Urrejola concluded.

Edison Lanza, Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the IACHR said that in Nicaragua there has been an absolute suppression of fundamental freedoms by the installation of a State of Terror that seeks the moral demolition of the leaders of civil society and which also aims to reach the IACHR.

OACNUDH will return to Nicaragua

Three months after the mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) left Nicaragua because the government terminated its mission, representatives of that office will return to Managua in mid-December; Marlene Alejos, Regional Representative of the OHCHR for Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic, revealed during the hearing.

“The Office will visit Managua in the middle of this month to explore with the Government the adequate conditions that allow us to return to work in the country, both in the monitoring of the human rights situation and in technical assistance,” Alejos explained.

Two days before its expulsion, the OHCHR published a report on the crisis in Nicaragua, concluding that “the overall response of the authorities to the protests did not comply with the applicable standards on the proper management of demonstrations, in violation of the International Law of human rights.”

Alejos recalled that in March 2019 there will be an Ordinary Session of the Human Rights Council in which the Member States will evaluate the situation in Nicaragua. Another important opportunity for Nicaragua to be evaluated will be in the month of May during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

Attacks against independent journalists escalate alarmingly in Nicaragua and international community reacts

(Picture: Oscar Navarrete, La Prensa).

Washington, D.C., December 6th, 2018. Attacks against journalists, editors, and media owners perpetrated by authorities and supporters of the government party FSLN have increased in the last two months in Nicaragua, according to testimonies of reporters and organizations.

The Violeta B. de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCH, for its initials in Spanish), counted a total of 77 violations of freedom of expression in Nicaragua between October 20th and December 3rd. Between April 18th, the day the current human rights crisis began, and December 3rd, there have been a total of 497 cases of assaults, harassments, arbitrary arrests, espionage and non-routine inspections.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF, for its initials in Spanish) denounced last week that police forces “are no longer content to obstruct the work of journalists,” but “they are now directly taking violent actions against journalists they consider too critical of the government.”

Nicaragua is going through a human rights crisis caused by the government-led repression of peaceful demonstrations across the country. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), this repression has left as of now at least 325 dead and more than 2,000 people injured. Additionally, hundreds of persons are political prisoners and more than 50,000 citizens have fled to Costa Rica.

Recent aggressions

The last attack on the media was reported on December 3rd, when police officers forcefully entered the headquarters of Radio Darío in the city of León. According to the staff members who were inside the building, a group of policeman forced them to stop the radio broadcasting and handcuffed them under threat of imprisonment.

“It was all a police operation, a huge outpouring of force and vehicles. They surrounded the block where we are located for three hours,” Aníbal Toruño, director of Radio Darío, told the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro on the television program Esta Noche.

Toruño blamed the First Police Commissioner of Leon, Fidel Domínguez, for ordering the arbitrary procedure and stated that authorities are “trying to destroy the emotional and psychological stability of workers to disintegrate the staff of Radio Darío.”

Radio Darío has been besieged by the authorities and supporters of the FSLN since the beginning of the crisis. On April 20th, the radio installations were burned completely by two well-known cadres of the ruling party. After that, three of the radio collaborators, Leo Cárcamo, Henry Blanco and Audberto Gallo, as well as Toruño, were granted precautionary measures (No. 693-18) by the IACHR.

Toruño assured that the radio will continue transmitting its regular programming now from other facilities, “assuming [we have] the constitutional right to free expression.”

Also on December 3rd, in the morning, government media reported that supporters of the ruling party made a formal accusation before the  Office of the Public Prosecutor against Miguel Mora, director and owner of Channel 100% Noticias for “inciting hatred and violence” through the news programming that his channel transmits. They also accused him, despite a lack of evidence, for the disappearance and alleged murder of Bismarck Martínez, a citizen who supposedly died during the month of June.

Mora, who has been harassed and detained six times by police agents, denied the accusations and assured that authorities are trying to use a “legal” device to imprison him and silence the reports of human rights violations committed by the government that are transmitted on his channel every day.

“This is being done to censor and silence the independent media of this country… this is part of the dirty smear campaign that has the sole purpose of censoring 100% Noticias and me as its director,” Mora denounced, according to La Prensa newspaper.

On several occasions during the last eight months, Channel 100% Noticias has been censored by the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services (Telcor, for its initials in Spanish). A week ago, Telcor ordered two cable companies to remove the channel from its programming grid in satellite signal.

A week before, on November 30th, Radio Mi Voz from León announced that it would temporarily close operations because of multiple police invasions of the radio station. Its director, Álvaro Montalván, who was arrested and beaten by policeman in the same context, said that the security of the radio’s staff made him make that decision.

Nowadays, the situation is so serious that RSF noted that several journalists have had to leave the country due to constant death threats and persecution, and warned about the possibility that more journalists should follow the same path.

Back in April, the journalist from Bluefields, Ángel Eduardo Gahona, was shot and killed while broadcasting on Facebook Live about an anti-government demonstration. Although Brandon Lovo, 18, and Glen Slate, 21, were found guilty of the crime, both their relatives and Gahona’s family point out that the real murderer remains unpunished.

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) strongly condemns the violations of freedom of the press and freedom of expression that the government of Nicaragua has committed against independent media, media directors, and journalists who expose the complaints of Nicaraguans victims of State repression through their news programs and articles.

Intimidations, persecutions, unjustified temporary detentions, and invasion of media buildings without a judicial order expose the will of the Ortega Murillo regime to break and violate the legitimate liberties and rights that the country’s constitution grants to men and women of the press. We demand that the Nicaraguan authorities completely cease repression against independent press.

LGBTIQ community is more vulnerable after the start of the crisis in Nicaragua, according to activists

Washington, DC. November 30th, 2018. The LGBTIQ community has been traditionally discriminated against, however, since the human rights crisis started in Nicaragua last April, the violations of their human rights have worsened. According to activists who spoke with the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), this community has suffered from discrimination and harassment in a more targeted and systematic way in recent months.

“Being gay or lesbian in Nicaragua, especially in this context where violence is more socially justified, puts us in a more vulnerable condition,” says Alex, a 25-year-old gay man who lives in a small city in northern Nicaragua. According to the young activist, they’re vulnerable “not only because we don’t agree with a totalitarian political system, but because we are considered sexual deviants.”

Alex adds that “in the street, they will not only attack you because you’re ‘Blue and White’ but they will also call you a ‘Blue and White’ faggot or a ‘Blue and White’ lesbo”.

He is one of thousands of citizens who joined the peaceful protests that at first demanded the annulment of reforms to the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute. The movement took the streets demanding justice and respect for human rights after the brutal governmental repression that has left as of now at least 325 dead, more than 2,000 people injured, and hundreds of persons who are political prisoners. People call them “Blue and White” because they use the Nicaraguan flag as a symbol of protest.

“Since I started participating in demonstrations, I’ve been being persecuted and attacked,” Alex shares, adding that groups of government-aligned men continually pass by his house on motorcycles and shouting phrases like “coup-plotter” or “faggot, we’re going to kill you.” “They put a lot of emphasis on my identity and my sexual and life choices”.

Francisca, a lesbian woman who prefers to omit her real name, explains that before the crisis, the LGBTIQ community had made significant progress regarding respect and equality. “But in these times of crisis, many things in which we had advanced, have receded,” she remarks.

Just like Alex, Francisca participated in the civic demonstrations. Soon after, she began to receive threats and was victim of an intense intimidation campaign through social networks.

“They threatened me directly, they told me things like ‘this is the dyke,’ or ‘look, we know where you live, get ready,’ or ‘we’re going to show you what a man is, maybe that’s how you will get well.’ They even sent lists on WhatsApp and Facebook saying I was pro-abortion and a crazy feminist.”

This situation, plus a telephone call in which she was warned that her capture was imminent, forced Francisca to flee her home. “I’ve been away from my house for almost five months, missing my family, missing everything I left there. I had to leave only with a backpack,” she stated.

Francisca now lives in a different city with her girlfriend. But the fear of being imprisoned is constant. Alex’s situation is similar. According to the activist, those who decided to stay in Nicaragua must live “practically in hiding.”

“I’ve been away from my house for almost five months, missing my family, missing everything I left there. I had to leave only with a backpack”. A 33-year-old lesbian woman.

On October 13th, the Nicaraguan Police prohibited any type of mobilization that was not authorized by that institution. One day later, a group of 38 citizens and activists were arrested by police officers for carrying out a sit-in without having requested such permits.

“We are in greater danger since there are no longer mobilizations. The State and its repressive machine have a greater ability to find you, look for you, and do anything with your life. Repression, arrests, and extrajudicial executions, including those for LGBT defenders, are more focused now,” explains Alex.

More aggressions

Transgender women have also suffered different types of aggression. “There are cases of transgender women who have been kidnapped by the police or paramilitary forces, who have been savagely assaulted, beaten, and left lying in the streets”. The aggressors threaten that the attacks are a demonstration of what will continue to happen to the ‘Blue and White’ people, says Dámaso Vargas, a 25-year-old transgender woman and activist from Managua.

One of the forms of protest that Dámaso exercised was abandoning the public education system. She was a senior high school student this year. “I disagree with everything that’s happening and for me, leaving school is also a way of saying that I will not continue to validate a State that is not really doing the work it should be doing,” she affirms.

Additionally, there are four trans women who are currently imprisoned in the men’s penitentiary system of La Modelo for having participated in the civic demonstrations, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH, for its initials in Spanish).

A case that has been broadly reported by national media is that of Victoria Obando, a 27-year-old trans woman and former student at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua), who barricaded herself in her university as a way of protest. She was arrested in late August and the authorities now accuse her of several crimes, including terrorism, murder, fire, kidnapping, armed robbery, and carrying out death threats.

“Victoria says they strip her in front of the rest of the inmates, policemen boo her and tell her things like ‘people who stay here are virile man, machos,’ knowing that we don’t want to feel that way and we don’t feel that way,” explains Dámaso, who says she feels powerless and sad in the face of such a situation.

Sexual violations have also become a form of repression. CENIDH has registered 12 cases of men and women who were victims of sexual violence during illegal detentions or kidnappings committed by parapolice men and police officers.

“Those are very terrible testimonies that currently can’t be brought to justice in this context precisely because there are no institutions that can investigate the authorities,” explains Wendy Flores, a lawyer at CENIDH, during the conversation “Women resisting repression” which was organized by DeHumo last week.

In the same conversation, Tania Sánchez denounced that a man tried to abuse her sister, Kisha López, a trans woman imprisoned in La Modelo. “Kisha defended herself and hit him with a broom in the ribs, because she says that regardless of what she is, they have to respect her,” Sanchez said.

Indigenous people

For indigenous communities, belonging to the LGBTIQ population results in a double factor of vulnerability, according to a gay Miskitu man who prefers to identify himself as Arturo.

Since 2013, 23 people from the LGBTIQ community have been murdered in the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.

“Many people of different sexual orientation who are in the universities have been persecuted, have been watched over, because they (government-aligned people) fear that this issue that is happening in the western part of the country can start here also among young people,” says Arturo, a 35-year-old attorney.

According to the activist and lawyer, in the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua “the crisis is not only 7 months long.” He says that the situation of persecution “has remained throughout time due to the same exclusion and discrimination that the State powers have imposed on the indigenous communities.” And he provided the example that since 2013, 23 people from the LGBTIQ community have been murdered. “Persecution of this community is in the background of the crisis,” he reveals.

Arturo himself affirms he has been attacked and threatened on social networks, both for his sexual orientation and for “being a defender of human rights, specifically for promoting the collective rights of indigenous people.”

Their work will continue

Although human rights violations in the current context of crisis in Nicaragua are not exclusive to the LGBTIQ community, the activists who spoke with Race and Equality insisted on the need to make visible their problems and challenges.

As Alex mentioned, “the actions that we take every day, the meetings, the mobilization strategies, the contents spread on social media, the demands of our political prisoners, mainly those who belong to the LGBTIQ community, that is our motivation.”

Human rights defender was stripped of her Nicaraguan nationality and expelled arbitrarily by the authorities

Washington, D.C., November 27th 2018. Ana Quirós Víquez, Director of the Center for Health Information and Advisory Services (CISAS), a Nicaraguan citizen with dual nationality, was illegally expelled from Nicaragua on Monday, November 26th, after immigration authorities annulled the Nicaraguan nationality she had acquired 21 years ago.

The decision of the authorities is clearly arbitrary. Quirós, who was attending an appointment at the General Directorate of Migration and Foreign Affairs (DGME, for its initials in Spanish), was informed by a migration officer that a legal resolution annulling her Nicaraguan nationality had been issued. In addition, the authorities told her she was forbidden from returning to Nicaragua for the next five years. She was not allowed to exercise her right to defense or to appeal the decision, even though these rights are guaranteed under Nicaraguan law.

During an interview given by Quirós to the journalist Carlos Salinas from Confidencial, the activist stated that the authorities told her that the reason for the annulment of her nationality was because she had two nationalities (from Nicaragua and Costa Rica), and only citizens from Central American countries can have both Nicaraguan and Costa Rican nationality. When she asked the authorities if Costa Rica was not a Central American country, the officers remained silent.

Quirós, who is also part of the National Feminist Articulation and a member of the Blue and White National Unity (UNAB, for its initials in Spanish), was born in Costa Rica but has been living in Nicaragua for more than 40 years and was nationalized as a Nicaraguan citizen in 1997.

The activist, a 62-year-old woman, went to the DGME at 10 a.m. last Monday, to respond to a citation that she received two days before. Although the document did not explain what the reason for the citation was, she was warned that if she didn’t show up she would face legal consequences.

“The appointment in Migration was almost nothing. They told me that my nationality was canceled. I asked what the next step was and what my status was. They did not answer me. It was not until later in the afternoon that they read me the resolution to expel me from the country,” Quirós told reporters a day later from the capital city of Costa Rica.

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A group of feminists, human rights defenders, and journalists remained for hours outside of the DGME after Quirós entered the building, but the authorities refused to give them any information about Ms. Quirós. The activist, however, had been transferred by noon to the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, better known as El Chipote.

“They put me in a temporary holding cell that is actually just a seat with bars,” said Quirós, who was fingerprinted and photographed during the detention. “They didn’t interrogate me, I wasn’t physically abused. But I did receive multiple verbal assaults, threats and constant intimidation,” she told journalists a day after she was expelled from Nicaragua.

At 6 pm on Monday, the General Consul of Costa Rica in Nicaragua, Oscar Camacho, stated on social media that the Costa Rican authorities had been informed that the Nicaraguan authorities were going to expel Quirós from Nicaragua

“They took me handcuffed in a bus, surrounded by armed police and accompanied by people from Migration in other vehicles to the southern border at Peñas Blancas. They insisted on not removing my handcuffs until we arrived, even once I got down from the bus I was still handcuffed. They took my shirt and my Nicaraguan hat. The entire way they were harassing me and verbally attacking me,” Quirós denounced.

Directed persecution

Vilma Núñez, President of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH, for its initials in Spanish), said that the actions against Quirós are part of “a directed persecution against all the people who support the claims of the people of Nicaraguan”.

Quirós has been one of the most active voices in the defense of human rights of Nicaraguans who demand democracy, justice and freedom in the context of the current human rights crisis that the country is going through.

In fact, the defender was one of the first victims of the repression that broke out in April. On the 18th of that month, during the first protest that took place in Managua, a mob of Government’s supporters hit her with a tube in her head, arms and the rest of her body. The picture in which she appeared covered in blood was distributed quickly through social media.

In the months that followed, Quirós said she was victim of “multiple threats in a systematic manner,” stating that “they came to visit our neighbors to ask where I was, and whenever I went to the airport they retained me in the migration offices, interrogating me,” she said from San José.

For the moment, the activist assured that she will continue to denounce from Costa Rica the human rights violations that occur in Nicaragua. In addition, she raised the possibility of suing the Nicaraguan State for its arbitrary expulsion from the country.

More women intimidated

On Monday, three Nicaraguan-based activists working with the Collective of Women from Matagalpa were also summoned by the DGME: the Swiss citizen Beatriz Huber and the Spanish sisters Ana and María Jesús Ara. The three of them were asked to sign a document in which they pledged to not participate in any more political activities if they wanted to remain in the country, according to the feminist defenders who accompanied them.

Juanita Jiménez, of the Autonomous Women’s Movement (MAM) of Nicaragua, warned that the process against Quirós and the three other activists from Matagalpa is framed “in that discourse of visceral hatred and disqualification that the Government is carrying out against the Nicaraguan feminism movement.”

Jiménez recalled that the last week, authorities denied authorization to feminist groups and citizens from the UNAB to march on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights strongly rejects Nicaragua’s expulsion of the human rights defender Ana Quirós. This is another act of repression that comes from the Nicaraguan dictatorship that has plagued the country for more than seven months and that has been systematically demonstrated through assassinations, violations of the freedom of expression and social protest, intimidation of the media and independent journalists, excessive use of force by parapolice groups and police officers, irregular judicial processes and an atmosphere of collective fear that makes the freedom of the Nicaraguan people impossible. We ask the international community to continue to denounce the situation in Nicaragua and to keep paying attention to the serious humanitarian crisis that the country is going through.

Public Announcement: Ongoing Crisis in Nicaragua

Washington, DC, November 23, 2018 – The International Institute of Race, Equality, and Human Rights strongly condemns and rejects the resolution issued today, November 23, 2018, by the Nicaraguan Police regarding the march convened to commemorate the International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women by the Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco [White and Blue National Unity] (UNAB), which had been announced was to be held on Sunday, November 25 in the city of Managua in protest over the violation of Nicaraguans’ fundamental rights for the last seven months by the Ortega-Murillo regime.

In the resolution, communicated by the Chief of the Directorate of Public Security of the National Police of Nicaragua, General Commissioner Luis Fernando Barrantes refuses to authorize it, while the National Police, in a clear abuse of power, classifies said initiative as a “vandalistic act” and “terrorist” with “coup aims” that envisages “affecting Nicaraguan families and the tranquility of the country.”  In addition, it states in a threatening tone “. . . that the National Police does not authorize nor will authorize public mobilizations by persons, organizations, or movements that participated in and are being investigated for their actions in the failed attempt at a  . . .”

As an institution that works in favor of the respect, guarantee, and protection of human rights, we repudiate said police communiqué, as it does not acknowledge, decontextualizes, and once again violates the right of Nicaraguans to protest peacefully to denounce the innumerable acts of harassment and repression committed by Nicaraguan authorities since April, in an attempt to foster a false sense of normalcy in the country when acts of harassment and intimidation in all public spaces continue being committed by the police, clearly endangering any possibility for regaining Nicaraguans’ tranquility, for whom this repression has given no respite.

Likewise, we denounce the indifference of the Nicaraguan State, which refuses to accept the existence of the victims of this humanitarian crisis from among the self-convened population, who today comprise more than 500 protestors, students, and activists who have been detained under conditions that endanger their lives, [physical] integrity, and due process, as well as the approximately 325 assassinations that continue to be shrouded in impunity and the acts of intimidation that are daily visited upon women, those who have been tried for the April incidents, journalists, human rights defenders, LGBTQI persons, and the community in general.

Race & Equality also vehemently condemns the acts of intimidation, assault, and harassment committed by the National Police in recent hours in different places in the city of Managua and other departments, which demonstrates that nothing is normal in Nicaragua.  The arbitrary nature with which the police continue to act provokes an environment of fear and insecurity among the populace.  We therefore demand the prompt release of the two Radio Darío collaborators, Omar López and Eduardo Patricio Amaya, who were kidnapped this morning.  Amaya was granted protective measures by the IACHR, MC 693-18.  We hold the State of Nicaragua responsible for any situation that violates [the] lives, [physical] integrity, and human rights of both Radio Darío employees.

We urgently call on the international community to take a stance in response to these acts that gravely violate the fundamental rights of the Nicaraguan people, who continue defenseless due to the dictatorial excesses committed by the current government.  Likewise, we call on the international community to raise its voice against the abuses that are ongoing against Nicaraguans by a regime that continues to be reluctant to uphold its international human rights commitments. 

November 20 – International Day of Transsexual Memory

“I am convinced that the engine of change is love.  The love we were denied
is our impetus to change the world.  All of the blows and slights
I suffered cannot compare with the infinite
love that surrounds me at this time.”
– Lohana Berkins (1965-2016), transvestite activist

On the International Day of Transsexual Memory, the International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights honors the memory of transsexuals who have lost their lives as a result of acts of intolerance, hate, and discrimination due to their gender identity in Latin America and the Caribbean.  November 20 is also a day to celebrate the lives of transsexuals who, despite social exclusion, limits on exercising their rights, and the absence of social policies that address their basic needs, continue their fight to defend their rights and construct networks of social transformation starting from their local milieus.

Discrimination, violence, segregation against transsexuals, and diverse gender-based segregation constitute a structural aspect of society; therefore, throughout history, their rights have been subject to a vicious cycle of violence, degradation, and oppression that has made it harder for them to enjoy the guarantees of a decent and complete life.

Around the world, transsexuals are subject to mockery, blackmail, physical and sexual assault, and assassination due to their diverse identities.  In addition, they are denied the opportunity to decent employment, medical care in keeping with their needs, and to be seen as subjects worthy of respect and recognition in society.  The stigma to which transsexuals are subject leads to the ‘invisibilization’ of their realities and experiences, as well as ignorance regarding the multiple challenges, barriers, and human rights violations they face.  It is thus that in the majority of countries, data on violence against transsexuals and gender-diverse persons are not systematically produced; therefore, it becomes impossible to calculate the exact number of cases.

Race & Equality observes with concern how the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean continue to have the highest rates of homicides of transsexuals due to motives of prejudice and discrimination, as well as the rationale of machismo and fundamentalist ideas that ignore the diversity, freedom, and autonomy of individuals to identify and define themselves.

Notwithstanding these adverse contexts of violence, we see throughout Latin America experiences of solidarity and leadership that transcend the margins of social exclusion and make known the social demands of transsexuals.  Transsexual leaders are the ones who have been able to impact local public policies, build support networks that have evinced the violence they experience, and above all, generate creative responses for social change from spaces of exclusion.

Race & Equality, within the framework of this commemoration, calls on the States in the region to expand spaces for social dialogue with organizations of transsexuals [and] strengthen the mechanisms for investigating the violence of which this population has been the victim, so as to overcome impunity and jointly define with transsexual leaders social policies of transformation that truly impact their most immediate needs.  We are convinced that transsexuals should continue to be remembered for their transformative acts, rather than for the unpunished violence by which they are eliminated.

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