The creation of a mechanism of independent experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council —which for a year will investigate the human rights violations in Nicaragua and, if possible, identify the perpetrators— also opens the possibility of exploring a channel of communication with the Daniel Ortega regime, in order to establish a minimum agenda in matter of human rights.
The former executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Paulo Abrāo appreciates that this mechanism the Human Rights Council “has teeth” because part “of an evaluation” that reflects that the Government of Nicaragua refused to cooperate with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, and values that the situation in the country “is aggravated.”
For this reason, the success of the group of experts that will investigate the situation in Nicaragua, Abrāo values, will depend to a large extent on their being knowledgeable about what has happened in the country in the last four years, because “progressiveness has to be considered ” of the facts and therefore the systematization of records and documentation that —perhaps— have been generated in the Inter-American System or in orlocal organizations.
The creation of this mechanism occurs almost four years after the start of the massive protests of 2018, at a time when the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has intensified the persecution against opposition leaders and victims who demand justice without impunity.
“My expectation is that this group, based on the profile of its members, has the conditions to present something new,” said Abrāo during an interview on the program This week which is broadcast this Sunday, April 3 on Facebook and YouTube due to the regime’s censorship. “I insist on this mandate, which was not foreseen for the other (previous) mechanisms, in which the UN says that the group should seek relevant dialogues with relevant actors, including decision makers, including the Government of Nicaragua,” he emphasized..
For Abrāo, the search for a communication channel with the government is aimed at resolving crucial human rights issues, such as the possibility of opening a humanitarian channel for the return of exiled people, the release of more than 170 political prisoners, immediate attention and reparation to the relatives of the victims of the repression since April 2018, “a minimum agenda of attention to human rights,” he commented.
In addition, the content of the reports that are generated and the collaboration that the Ortega regime has or does not have with that group of experts, could open “paths to activate sanctions of the universal system, beyond those sanctions that the inter-American system generated, especially the political bodies”, Abrāo valued.
Continue the work done
Senior researcher at the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, Juan Pappier, also consulted for the program This week this Sunday, he warned that it is very possible that Daniel Ortega’s regime is not willing to cooperate with this UN mechanism, nor has it done so with other human rights organizations, but he pointed out that this group of experts “with or without the cooperation of the Government of Nicaragua” has a lot of work to do.
The experts “they can conduct interviews with the tens of thousands of Nicaraguans who have had to leave the country” in exile, access criminal files “through the representation of the victims or those accused in cases of criminal prosecution and prisoners politicians”, exemplifies Pappier. They “can do their job without the cooperation of the Nicaraguan government, I think the only one who loses by not cooperating with this group of experts is the Nicaraguan government,” she added.
According to resolution of the Human Rights Council, the experts must collect, preserve and analyze the information and potential evidence; and – where possible – identify those responsible for such violations in order to promote accountability.
They will also issue recommendations to improve the human rights situation in the country, provide guidance on access to justice and accountability, for which they will collaborate with the Office of the High Commissioner, the State of Nicaragua, international human rights organizations , relevant UN agencies and civil society.
The mandate of the group of experts “is broad,” said Pappier, but the time they have to work is barely a year, so they must prioritize issues “that contribute to future accountability” and start from what is already Organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OACNUDH) have investigated.
The creation of this mechanism “is very good news because it gives a glimmer of hope that there will ever be justice for these abuses, but unfortunately the creation of this group of experts alone is not enough for us to free political prisoners” Pappier warned. “We have to keep working to achieve the international pressuremultilateral, and agreed that forces Ortega to release these political prisoners, starting with those who are in the worst situations in terms of health, “he stressed.
Daniel Ortega’s regime has ignored all human rights resolutions, but is becoming —increasingly— internationally isolated. Proof of this is that this follow-up mechanism for Nicaragua was created with the support of 20 countries, 20 abstained and only their political allies opposed: Bolivia, Cuba, China, Venezuela and the Russian Federation; also, Eritrea, an African country; and Honduras, which a day later stated that it was “a communication error.”
The Honduran Vote
In Pappier’s opinion, the vote in the Human Rights Council was “overwhelming” and sent “a clear message” that the international community is not going to remain silent in the face of the “very serious and systematic” abuses of the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua.
“The big disappointment for everyone is Honduras, who begins his work in the Human Rights Council in Geneva on the wrong foot, voting together with Cuba and Venezuela, against so as not to condemn the abuses of the Daniel Ortega regime. It really is an inexplicable vote”, commented Pappier before knowing that that country He asked to rectify his vote.
Regarding the vote in Honduras, the former Secretary General of the IACHR considered that it represents “a very important challenge” for human rights organizations, since they must pressure and send messages to the Government of Xiomara Castro to adopt a consistent position in defense of human rights.
Abrāo also celebrated that countries like Argentina and Mexico have supported the creation of this mechanism of the Human Rights Council, since in previous years and in other international forums they had refrained from condemning the Ortega regime.
On the other hand, both human rights defenders pointed out that the majority of countries that abstained from voting are of African origin, whose criteria for voting is to prevent the implementation of this type of mechanism in their territories and not because they support the Nicaraguan regime.
This vote “demonstrates that Nicaragua is also isolated in the universal system,” Abrāo commented. “Now the mechanism is going to have the great challenge of helping to consolidate that vision and activate the strongest mechanisms of the universal system on Nicaragua,” he added.
The appointment of experts
The appointment of the three international experts who will investigate the human rights violations in Nicaragua depends on the president of the Human Rights Council, but Pappier estimates that it could take between 15 and 20 days, due to the urgency of the issue. “The priority now must be to appoint the experts as soon as possible, allocate the funds and operationalize this group of experts with their teams so that they can start operating in a month and a half at the most,” he noted.
The UN has activated this type of mechanism for other very serious situations such as Syria or Venezuela. “Then it must be understood in these terms and give the work of that group an opportunity so that it can also assume that dimension, to identify responsibilities…, but also push for a change in reality because the people of Nicaragua can no longer bear to live in a environment of intimidation, absence of freedoms and systematic violation of their rights”, Abrāo concluded.
