Jan Simon, President of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, attached to the United Nations (UN), and Angela Buitragoappeared this Saturday afternoon at a press conference in San José, Costa Rica to refer to the recent report in which accused the Nicaraguan regime of “crimes against humanity”.
To the question of Article 66 Regarding what steps should be followed after the report, Buitrago indicated that the international community “can exercise what is called the principle of protection, to prevent crimes against humanity from continuing to be committed, as was verified in the investigation and as was demonstrated ».
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“The steps that remain to be taken is for the international community to take actions and those actions are directly effective to promote investigation and sanction actions with respect to the people who have committed these acts,” said the former Colombian prosecutor.
Regarding the sanctions that the dictators Daniel Ortega and Rosario may be subject to, the expert said that the actions of the Nicaraguan leaders will be identified “to determine responsibility in this chain of crimes against humanity, so the sanctions are permissible.”
Ortega and Murillo can be charged before the International Criminal Court
For her part, Jan Simon, affirmed that having concluded that the State of Nicaragua may be violating the United Nations Convention against Torture, “any country that is a party to the Convention can sue Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice.”
Regarding the criminal responsibility of the Ortega regime, and knowing that Nicaragua is not a party to the Rome Statute Convention, the Ghren president said that “There are several possibilities to open the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court”.
One of the ways to criminally accuse Ortega and Murillo, according to Simon, is retroactively, “once there is a change of government in Nicaragua, the case can be referred to the Court (…) and this is a point that all violators of human rights who are acting as heads of state must take this into account”.
Experts would investigate acts of corruption of the Ortega regime
Regarding the request of human rights defenders to extend the mandate to the experts, Jan Simon explained that it would be renewed on April 4 at the close of the 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“The renewal of the mandate will mean that it will give us the possibility to continue with a mandate that is particularly broad compared to other mandates that have been granted within the framework of the Human Rights Council,” he said.
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In the same way, he said that if they continue working, they would be deepening their lines of investigation in indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and peasants, as well as having the possibility of seeing the economic and corruption implications that the Ortega regime has been immersed in.
In addition, the investigation of the different Nicaraguan government commanders who have been implicated in the violations detected is being deepened.
“All the institutions of the State of Nicaragua that may be involved in acts of corruption and human rights violations are going to be part of the investigation,” he remarked.
Once again Simon insisted that Nicaragua is “in the sights and attention of the international community for the simple fact that the international community materialized in the Human Rights Council has taken the position of deciding that a mechanism like this —Ghren , for its acronym in English) — existed».
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On the other hand, the experts asserted that the consequences of the repressive actions of the regime can be perceived by the decisions that the State has taken in an arbitrary manner, “not only depriving people of their nationality, but rendering them stateless (… ) situation that is very dramatic for the people affected, because they are left in limbo and have no chance to move in any condition,” said Angela Buitrago.
In turn, Gonzalo Carrión of the Nicaragua Human Rights Collective Nunca Más stressed that “the time to render an account —for Ortega and Murillo— will come and in this sense, the Expert Group is a contribution to the demand for justice and truth.” , also called on the victims to approach human rights defenders to document the violations of their rights.
