HRC61: Oral Statement during ID with group of experts on Nicaragua

Item 4:Interactive Dialogue with the Group of Human Rights Experts on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua

Speaker:Ellis Heasley

Thank you, Mr President,

CSW welcomes the report of the group of experts. We share the group of experts’ concern over the victimisation and targeting of critical voices including leaders of the Catholic and other Christian churches whose ‘mobilisation and convening capacity’ are considered a threat to the government’s control.

While we welcome the news that Protestant pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas and five of his friends and family members were among the 20 political prisoners released on 10 January after nearly six months in incommunicado detention, they remain under house arrest or subject to precautionary measures that require them to regularly report to their local police stations. Their friend and church member, Mauricio Alonso Petri, died in detention in August 2025.

In a separate case, Roman Catholic lay leaders Carmen María Sáenz Martínez and Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda were also released into house arrest in Matagalpa on 29 November 2025, after spending nearly 16 months in incommunicado detention. Being released into house arrest, does not undo the injustice committed against them, nor are they free.

We call on the government of Nicaragua to grant them full freedom without condition, and to immediately release all remaining political prisoners including Pastor Efrén Antonio Vílchez López who is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence on false charges.

CSW is also concerned by the forced exile of eight nuns from the Order of Capuchin – five are Nicaraguan citizens and three are foreign nationals. They were forcibly exiled between December 2025 and January 2026 after 30 years of service in the country.

Thank you.