During the last ninety days, Nicaragua has been on the news because international organizations and non-governmental human rights organizations (NGOs) have published reports and held events reflecting the systematic, massive and widespread violations committed by the Ortega Murillo regime.

The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) published a report on serious violations and abuses against the university community, as well as another one on violations and abuses of the rights of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of the Caribbean Coast. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions issued a report on the case of four indigenous forest rangers.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemned the serious violations of the rights of those deprived of liberty and the banishment of 135 political prisoners, and it also granted precautionary measures to 9 of the almost 50 political prisoners currently held.

Alternative analysis unmasked the dictatorship in the EPU

Prior to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Fundación Puentes para el Desarrollo de Centroamérica presented an alternative analysis that unmasked the official report that the dictatorship presented with data far from reality and that did not respond to the serious allegations of violations against it.

During the UPR, 51 countries expressed their concern about rights violations, the closure of civic space and the persecution of human rights defenders, journalists and opponents.

Furthermore, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court) issued a condemnatory sentence for violations of the rights of the Rama and Kriol peoples, committed before and during the approval of the canal concession that the dictatorship granted to Wang Jing in 2013.

In a hearing, the IACHR addressed international financial support and its impact on human rights in Nicaragua, and the Hudson Institute held an event on religious persecution, including in Nicaragua. The International Labor Organization (ILO) resolved to send a high-level commission to verify violations of workers’ and employers’ rights.

The Ortega Murillos have disregarded all recommendations

But while the international community is watching what is happening, the situation in Nicaragua continues to worsen. In the last few days, Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera, president of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) and three artists were kidnapped and banished, and a journalist was imprisoned, thus increasing the number of political prisoners and de facto stateless persons who are denied entry into the country. In addition, the National Assembly approved another repressive law against freedom of information. The Ministry of the Interior continues to close NGOs and confiscate their assets, and forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture persist.

The generalized violation of rights includes the thirty rights contained in the Universal Declaration and most of those that have been recognized, including those of the latest generation. The Ortega-Murillo regime violates at least 29 rights and freedoms included in the Political Constitution, which they have in fact rendered meaningless.

The Ortega-Murillo family have disregarded all human rights recommendations and resolutions issued by the competent international bodies, acting as an outlaw State, which does not hide its deliberate will to fail to comply with its internal and external obligations.

Orden internacional no está preparado para frenar el avance del totalitarismo

Clearly, outlaw States such as Nicaragua cause great suffering to their people by taking away their freedoms and rights, deteriorating the economy, forcing massive migration of their population, and committing crimes against humanity, such as those found by the GHREN experts.

As the representative of the Netherlands stated during the UPR, States cannot invoke the principle of sovereignty, independence and self-determination to violate the human and constitutional rights of their citizens.

But the Ortega-Murillo regime pretends to justify their violations under these principles, trying to go back to a concept typical of absolute monarchies, where the dictator appropriates sovereignty and uses it to violate the rights of the true sovereign.

For the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation (CDN), the structure that supports the international system for the protection of human rights is unbalanced. It has two columns, a functional and well-founded one that receives complaints and prepares reports. The other one is weak and ineffective, that of pressure, retaliation and suspension of external financing, indispensable to guarantee non-repetition and avoid impunity.

This is evidence that the current international order is not prepared to halt the advance of totalitarianism and sanction outlaw States. As long as external financiers do not realize that the support they provide has an adverse impact on human rights, crimes against humanity will continue to be committed.

A Step in the Right Direction

The Ortega Murillo regime has an inordinate eagerness to present Nicaragua as a country of absolute normality. To this end, it allocates an enormous number of resources to buy everything it can in spite of what the dictatorship represents.

This includes hiring artists to give concerts, with a frequency never seen before, and even having some of them make propaganda in its favor. In a practice known as sportswashing, he promotes a myriad of international sporting events regardless of whether or not they are played in the country. With the same purpose, it pays for advertorials in the international media and sends delegations to every fair held abroad. They even hire evaluation firms to try to get positive ratings in several subjects.

Also, in the different international political and human rights spaces, it continues to try to show itself as respectful of the agreements, rights and norms, and when it is unmasked and/or considers that it can no longer obtain benefits, it chooses to disassociate itself, as it did with the Organization of American States (OAS).

But it is still linked to the United Nations System, because it continues to receive benefits from bodies dependent on the General Assembly, such as the World Food Program (WFP) and others. It takes advantage of the lack of congruence of the System in the presence of this type of regimes, which it allows to oxygenate itself with programs such as those of the WFP, without taking into account that they violate agreements and commitments with other agencies, as is the case with the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The ILO is the only tripartite agency of the UN

Within the structure of the United Nations (UN), the ILO “is dedicated to the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labor rights” and is responsible for promoting and monitoring compliance with labor agreements signed by the States.

The ILO is the only tripartite agency of the UN, bringing together governments, workers and employers from 187 member states, although fewer are respectful of tripartism. Among those who disrespect this scheme is the Ortega-Murillo regime and others like it, where it no longer exists, because they eliminated the independent workers and employers’ organizations.

Because of this in 2023 the International Organization of Employers (IOE), in accordance with ILO statutes and regulations, filed a complaint alleging Nicaragua’s non-compliance with Conventions 87, 98, 111 and 144 related to: freedom of association and protection of the right to organize; the right to organize and collective bargaining; discrimination in employment and occupation; and tripartite consultation (international labor standards).

This is the second time that the IOE has filed a complaint against Nicaragua, the first being in 1987 against the then Sandinista regime, also headed by Daniel Ortega.

In the current complaint, the IOE stated that Nicaragua is going through a critical moment for the defense of fundamental rights, particularly freedom of association, and by the end of November 2023, it reported the closure of more than 2,000 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Only one year later, more than 5,500 civil society associations have already been cancelled. The figure includes the total dismantling of independent chambers of commerce, from the national level down to the smallest municipality in the country.

They demand restoration of freedoms

The complaint demands the urgent re-establishment of freedom of association and full respect for the human rights of its members.

Ironically, during the meeting to follow up on the case, the Nicaraguan dictatorship only had the defense of Cuba, China, Iran and Russia, who with total impudence argued that Nicaragua has a democratically elected government that complies with international conventions and respects human rights and described the complaint as an interventionist action to destabilize it.

In response, on November 5, the ILO Governing Body reiterated the deep concern expressed by its Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) and regretted the absence of commitments by the Ortega Murillo regime, which does not respond to consultations or provide information, although it does in the case of the WFP, and urged it to address the issues raised in the complaint, respond to the communications and provide the requested information. It also decided to send a high-level tripartite mission to evaluate the issues raised in the complaint.

For the Nicaraguan Democratic Concertation (CDN), the decision taken by the ILO Governing Body is a step in the right direction as it will serve to remove the mask of the regime in this space and show that the least that Nicaragua has is normality.