Over 20 human rights organisation have called on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to adopt a resolution renewing a their commitment to monitor and repair on the dire situation in Nicaragua.
In a statement cosigned by all of these organisations, they maintain that the Human Rights Council has played a vital role in reporting on the crimes committed during the 2018 protests, which include murder, torture and rape. This reporting is important not only in providing accountability for these crimes but also in preventing further crimes, in particular with concerns over the 2021 presidential elections.
The statement further notes that in late 2018, Nicaragua expelled staff members of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights). The government refused to allow human right monitors into the country and engaged in brutal crackdown on civil society. The Human Rights Council has detailed a “system prohibition of protests” which the government continues to engage in which included in November 2019, harassing and intimidating protesters on their hunger strikes and those demanding the release of their relatives. 61 government critics have been arrested.
The organisations listed below have cosigned to the statement.
- Amnesty International
- Articulación de Movimientos Sociales y OSC de Nicaragua (AMS)
- Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL)
- Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (CENIDH)
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Fédération Internationale pour les Droits Humains (FIDH)
- FAN - Feministas Autoconvocadas de Nicaragua
- Fondo de Acción Urgente de América Latina y el Caribe (FAU-AL)
- Front Line Defenders
- Fundación Popol Na
- Fundación del Río
- Human Rights Watch
- Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IM Defensoras)
- International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
- Just Associates (JASS)
- Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (MAM)
- Oxfam
- Plataforma Internacional Contra la Impunidad
- Punto Focal de la Campaña 28 de Setiembre por la Despenalización del Aborto en América Latina y el Caribe
- Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe - Enlace Nacional Nicaragua
- Red Local
- The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights
- Unión de Presas y Presos Políticos Nicaragüenses (UPPN)
- Urgent Action Fund-Latin America and the Caribbean (UAF-LA)
- Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
You can read the statement here.
