HRC54: Statement during the ID on the High Commissioners report on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua

Item 2: ID with the Group of Experts on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua

Organization:Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW)

Speaker:Claire Denman

Thank you, Mr President,

CSW thanks the High Commissioner for his report.

CSW is concerned by the Nicaraguan government’s ongoing tactics to suppress freedom of religion or belief, including harassing, and imprisoning religious leaders, arbitrarily cancelling religious events, and stripping the legal status of many religiously affiliated universities and nongovernmental organizations.

Attacks against the Roman Catholic Church are highly visible, but other religious groups are not exempt from the government’s crackdown on religious freedom. CSW is particularly concerned by FoRB violations targeting the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists, as well as the Assemblies of God and other independent Protestant Christian religious groups who have not overtly allied themselves with the government.

We urge the Nicaraguan government

• To release without condition Bishop Rolando Álvarez Lagos and other imprisoned Catholic priests, as well as Edgar Francisco Parrales, and all political prisoners.
• To restore Nicaraguan citizenship to all those, in and outside the country, from whom it has been arbitrarily and illegally removed.
• To reinstate the legal status of all civil society organizations which have been arbitrarily made illegal; and to unfreeze the bank accounts of universities, non-governmental organizations and religious groups throughout the country.
• To cease the illegal collection of taxes from religious institutions that are exempt under Article 5 of Executive Decree 3-95 on Real Estate Tax.
• To allow international human rights bodies, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the OHCHR, unhindered access to Nicaragua.

We urge the international community to identify effective and creative ways to support Nicaragua in implementing these recommendations.

Thank you.