OAS to Demand End to Human Rights Violations in Nicaragua

 On June 26 and 28, during the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), a draft resolution will be debated that calls for the “immediate” release of political prisoners in Nicaragua and urging the hemisphere’s States to redouble efforts to facilitate actions to end human rights violations in the country.

The initiative demands that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo “immediately and unconditionally release all persons deprived of their liberty for political or religious reasons.”

The document, drafted by Canada and endorsed by other OAS member countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, the Dominican Republic, the United States, and Uruguay, cites a “profound” concern about the deterioration of human rights in Nicaragua, which has worsened since 2018, when more than 300 politically motivated killings were documented.

Nicaragua left the OAS on November 19, 2023, becoming the second country in Latin America to voluntarily leave the organization – the first was Venezuela.

Nicaragua’s exit from the OAS comes two years after the Ortega-Murillo regime denounced the organization’s Charter. The dictatorship argued alleged and “constant interventionist attitudes” of the regional organization, related to the approval of resolutions condemning their abuses against the Nicaraguan people.

Restoring Rights

The draft resolution calls on member states to “redouble their efforts to facilitate, through individual or collective actions, the cessation of human rights violations, and to end ideological persecution, whether political or religious.”

Additionally, they request the recovery of Nicaragua’s democratic institutions and the rule of law through “constructive dialogue” that allows Nicaragua to fulfill its human rights obligations, “including accountability by state institutions for failing to observe human rights.”

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The text details their observation of the displacement of more than 270,000 Nicaraguans who have sought asylum worldwide and expresses concern about the suppression of civic spaces through the cancellation of more than 3,000 civil society organizations, the stripping of nationality and political rights of more than 300 people, and the situation of at least 54 media outlets that have closed or were confiscated, and the more than 250 journalists forced into exile.

The draft resolution called “Monitoring the Situation in Nicaragua” emphasizes the need to restore the right of Nicaraguans to enter and leave the country without problems and insists on the “immediate end to the impunity of state institutions and other actors who perpetrated serious human rights violations.”

It also calls on Daniel Ortega’s regime to respect all measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “refrain from repressing and arbitrarily detaining evangelical church leaders and provide information on the physical and psychological health of the 11 religious leaders of Puerta de la Montaña,” who are being held in maximum-security facilities.

The draft requests that the Government of Nicaragua “constructively engage with the inter-American human rights system, facilitating international scrutiny within the framework of international law, allowing the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and its Special Rapporteur, Adhesion Mechanism, as well as other competent international organizations, to enter its territory.”

The human rights violations in Nicaragua lead the OAS to instruct the Permanent Council to stay informed under the inter-American instruments, about the situation in Nicaragua, “facilitating and articulating dialogue, negotiation, and visibility initiatives in pursuit of the objectives of this resolution, and within the limits of international law.”

The resolution drafted by Canada will be key in the deliberation of the General Assembly to be held in Paraguay on June 26 and 28.

This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.