At least 18 organizations (NGOs) denounced this Thursday in a public hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) the “extreme situation in relation to the systematic violation of freedom of association and the right to defend human rights in Nicaragua.”
Representatives of these organizations read a statement during that hearing before the IACHR in which they assured that to date the legal personality of 2,634 NGOs has been arbitrarily canceled in Nicaragua, of which 2,510 have been outlawed as of March of this year.
In addition, that at least 43 of these NGOs have been raided and that the Nicaraguan State unconstitutionally appropriated their assets.
“We denounce before the Commission the continuous application of repressive laws that are used to justify these cancellations and criminalize their members, which increases the vulnerability of historically discriminated populations,” the NGOs pointed out in the document.
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They warned that only the dissolution of 53 of the total of illegal organizations means a reduction of 41.9 million dollars in the annual execution of development projects, the loss of at least 2,000 formal jobs and the neglect of one million beneficiaries.
“All these cancellations and violence against human rights defenders are supported by an instrumentalized Judiciary and by the ineffectiveness of internal resources,” they added.
RAPPORTEUR DENOUNCES DISMANTLING POLICY To NGO
According to the organizations, this hearing was attended by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association, Clement Voule, who denounced a “policy of dismantling social movements” through the application of ambiguous laws, the stigmatization of their work , cancellation of legal personality and occupation of its assets.
In this regard, Commissioner Margarette May said that all the organizations that defend democracy in Nicaragua “are in danger”, “that the criminalization and repression against human rights defenders is illegal” and that there is no independent body in this country. .
During the hearing, both the IACHR and its special rapporteurs assured that the “serious situation” in Nicaragua is a priority for them, and “that these human rights violations deserve the maximum sentence.”
“Nicaragua needs to return the freedom of its people, political prisoners cannot exist in a democratic country, Nicaragua needs to open these spaces for dialogue,” advocated Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena, in a message addressed to the Nicaraguan State.
THEY CALL TO CEASE THE “BRUTAL REPRESSION”
The organizations demanded “the immediate end of the brutal repression against the organized Nicaraguan population, refraining from continuing to cancel organizations en masse, reestablishing the legal personality of the canceled organizations, returning their assets.”
Also revoke “the current arrest warrants and immediately release all people who remain deprived of liberty for political reasons, as well as repeal all repressive and unconstitutional laws.”
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Among the signatory NGOs are the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), the Center for Legal Assistance for Indigenous Peoples (Calpi), the Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never Again, the Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil), the Coordinator of the Childhood and Adolescence (Codeni), International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), among others.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has worsened after the controversial general elections on November 7, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second along with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with seven of her potential rivals in prison. EFE
