The ICJ today delivered a statement before the UN Human Rights Council denouncing the increasing human rights violations in Nicaragua and calling on the authorities in Nicaragua and other parties to lend all support and collaboration to the Council’s Group of Human Rights Experts in investigating human rights violations.
The statement reads as follows:
“Mr President,
Since the last session of this Council, the situation of human rights in Nicaragua has further deteriorated.
Before and after the November 2021 elections, hundreds human rights defenders, journalists and political activists have been threatened, prosecuted, unlawfully detained and ill-treated, and some have had to flee the country. Political parties, human rights and development organizations and media outlets have been forced to close. In these conditions, any electoral process is necessarily unfair and illegitimate.
The ICJ deplores the breakdown of the rule of law and the exacerbation of impunity in the face of serious human rights violations in the country. As a 2021 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ report concluded, the concentration of power in the executive has enabled the use of terror and abuse by the security forces and the repression of human rights.
The ICJ welcomes the establishment by this Council of a Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua and calls on the authorities in Nicaragua and other parties to lend them all support and collaboration in investigating human rights violations.
The persecution of journalists, political opponents and human rights defenders must cease and the responsible authorities must act to hold the perpetrators of human rights violations to account, provide access to effective remedies and reparation to the victims.
Thank you.”
Contact:
Massimo Frigo, ICJ UN Representative, e: massimo.frigo(a)icj.org, t: +41797499949
