Nicaragua: PEN International joins calls to the UN Human Rights Council to ensure freedom of expression and press freedom.
11 November 2024: On 13 November, in Geneva, Switzerland, the review and adoption of the recommendations issued to the State of Nicaragua as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) will take place.
The undersigned organisations and networks call on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to formulate recommendations, as part of Nicaragua’s fourth UPR cycle, to ensure the protection and respect of freedom of expression and press freedom in the country. They urge the UNHRC to consider the serious complaints raised by civil society organisations as part of the UPR proceedings, as well as the reports presented by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Since 2018, Nicaragua has been facing a severe human rights crisis, intensified following citizen protests that triggered unprecedented state repression. Such repression has affected activists, artists, journalists, students, clergy, human rights defenders, and civil society organizations, all of whom have been persecuted and criminalised for questioning the official narrative. Although the State of Nicaragua asserted in its National Report, submitted in September 2024, that there have been no violations of freedom of expression during the evaluation period (2019-2023), reports from civil society and international bodies, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the UNHRC itself, reveal a different reality. Investigations, concrete data, and testimonies show an almost complete shutdown of civic space and the systematic persecution of critical voices.
According to information collected by civil society organizations, from 2019 to 2023, the most common attacks against journalists and media workers included arbitrary detentions, espionage, judicial harassment, kidnappings, gender-based violence, torture, and surveillance of family members. Additionally, forced exile, expulsion, and the stripping of nationality have become common repressive practices, increasing the vulnerability of journalists and media workers by depriving them of civil, social, economic, political, and cultural rights—a situation that demonstrates the ongoing violation of human rights.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), between 2018 and 2023, around 440,260 people were forcibly displaced (6.5% of the population). At least 317 individuals were stripped of their nationality and denationalised for the crime of treason1. Repressive strategies against freedom of expression and press freedom have diversified to such an extent that, as of August 2024, approximately 5,664 forced closures of media outlets, national and international NGOs, religious organisations, cultural associations, and others have been recorded. This data reveals a prohibition on expressing dissent in any form.
The Nicaraguan State has employed various repressive state mechanisms, including the strengthening of its restrictive and punitive legal framework, accompanied by judicial processes applied in a discretionary manner and without clear criteria. In this context, the full development of a democratic society is hindered, as freedom of expression and press freedom are essential conditions for its realisation.
The undersigned organisations call on the State of Nicaragua to immediately cease the persecution, criminalisation, and harassment of dissenting voices, as it is obligated to respect, protect, and guarantee human rights, specifically the rights to freedom of expression, press, and assembly.
We also urge the UNHRC to continue supporting dissenting voices and to adopt measures to protect them. To this end, it is essential to implement recommendations that prevent, protect against, and prosecute violations of freedom of expression.
Signatories
AMARC-ALC
Artículo 19 oficina México y Centroamérica
Artist at Risk
Comité para la protección de periodistas (CPJ)
Fundación por la Libertad de Expresión y Democracia (FLED)
IFEX-ALC
PCIN
PEN International
Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP)
Note to Editors:
For more information, please contact Alicia Quiñones, Head of the Americas Region at PEN International, email: alicia.quinones@pen-international.org
