Introduction
1. CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide) and Impulso18 are human rights organisations specialising in the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). This submission seeks to draw attention to the ongoing human rights violations in Nicaragua, between the period of 2019 and 2024, ahead of the state’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
2. During the reporting period, CSW began to monitor the human rights situation in Nicaragua, and published reports on the country in 2022 and 2024 respectively.
3. Many of the cases of human rights violations include individuals who criticise the government and are subjected to censorship, intimidation, exile and degrading treatment in detention.
Legal Framework and Challenges
4. The Constitution of Nicaragua guarantees that all people, individually or collectively, have the right to express their religious beliefs in private or in public, through worship, practices and teaching. No one is permitted to fail to observe the laws or prevent others from exercising their rights and fulfilling their duties, by invoking religious beliefs or provisions.
5. Nicaragua is party to all international human rights treaties except the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED), which it has not signed or ratified.
6. In 2018, protests took place across the country in reaction to government modifications to the pension system for the elderly. Roman Catholic Church leaders attempted to mediate between the government and protesters, but, after church leaders refused to deny aid to demonstrators in need and because some clergy had expressed support for the protesters, these efforts broke down. Around this time, the government initiated a media campaign against the Roman Catholic Church and its leadership, attacking churches and other places of worship, including the main cathedral in Managua, the country’s capital. Hundreds of protesters were killed by state forces. Many more were wounded or imprisoned. Protestant leaders who voiced messages the authorities considered to be critical also experienced retaliation at the hands of the government.
7. In November 2021 Daniel Ortega was elected to a fourth consecutive term as president in an election process marred by government repression and the arrest of political opponents. Members of the opposition were barred from participating in the political process, and many were threatened, arbitrarily detained and forced into exile.
8. On 19 November 2021, the government announced its withdrawal from the Organisation of American States (OAS) in response to the body’s adoption of a resolution stating that the presidential elections had ‘no democratic legitimacy.’
9. In October 2023, the government reformed Article 165 of the constitution, removing powers held by the Supreme Court of Justice to supervise the administrative functioning of the Public Registries of Real Estate and Commercial Property, to appoint Public Registrars, as well as to sanction them for disciplinary offenses. The law now mandates that all public records held by the National Registry System be transferred to the Attorney General’s Office. These reforms and the new law streamlined the ability of the government to confiscate property.
To read the submission in full, you can download the pdf here.