HRC52: Oral statement on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua

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

Organisation:Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW)

Speaker:Claire Denman

Thank you, Mr President,

CSW thanks the Group of Experts for their important work.

Over the past year, the Nicaraguan government has taken draconian measures to eliminate independent voices in the country. Hundreds of members of the political opposition, human rights defenders, independent journalists and religious leaders have been arbitrarily detained and expelled from the country and stripped of their citizenship in contravention of international law.

One political prisoner who refused to leave the country, Bishop Rolando Álvarez Lagos, was transferred from house arrest to a maximum-security prison and was sentenced to 26 years in prison in a summary trial the following day. He is currently being held in a punishment cell in La Modelo prison with almost no light.

Most recently, the government has announced that religious activities, including traditional Roman Catholic processions carried out as part of the observance of Lent and Easter, will not be permitted and all such activities must be confined within church buildings and limited hours set by the police.

CSW calls on the Nicaraguan government:

• To release all political prisoners including Bishop Álvarez Lagos and 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;
• To ensure that the fundamental human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, of all are upheld in line with international law and The Pact of San José.

We urge the international community to support Nicaragua in implementing these recommendations.

Thank you.

Click here to download this statement in Spanish (PDF).