Washington, D.C. August 31. 2018. Following the release on 29 August 2018 of the conclusive report “Violaciones de derechos humanos y abusos en el contexto de las protestas en Nicaragua” [Human Rights Violations and Abuses in the Context of the Protests in Nicaragua] by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that provides evidence of systematic human rights violations and calls for the creation of an international commission to ensure justice and reparations for the victims, Daniel Ortega, through the Chancellery of Nicaragua, ordered the members of the Nicaraguan Mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to leave the country.

 Race & Equality emphatically condemns this decision of the current government as constituting a negative precedent regarding the current situation in the country and which additionally demonstrates the unwillingness of the government to permit international scrutiny of its performance in the area of human rights and its eagerness to evade justice for the extremely grave human rights violations it has committed from 18 April [2018] to date.  With extreme concern we see how the decisions of the Ortega regime contribute to the impunity in the country and reinforce the logic of fear and death that bolster the state of defenselessness and vulnerability in which the Nicaraguan people live, especially those who today are persecuted, threatened, singled out, and arbitrarily detained by the regime.

This declaration made by the government clearly demonstrates its lack of interest in restarting a peaceful and democratic national dialogue that enables the crisis and its consequences to be overcome, and additionally lays bare a clear rejection of the recommendations proposed to date by the working groups of international bodies present in Nicaragua that urge, among others, that it cease the harassment, intimidation, persecution, [and] repression of human rights defenders, politicians, journalists, and protestors who oppose the repression committed by the regime.

We urge the government of Daniel Ortega to end the repression and flagrant human rights violations, in order to overcome the crisis which in the last four months has left more than 300 people dead, more than 2,000 people injured, hundreds arbitrarily detained, and thousands displaced.