WorthyNews: Nicaragua Leaves UN Rights Council

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By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

GENEVA/MANAGUA (Worthy News) – Christians anxiously watch a decision by Nicaragua’s autocratic president to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Two days earlier, a group of U.N. experts released a strongly worded report condemning “President Daniel Ortega’s regime for its systematic crackdown on human rights, democratic norms, and religious groups.”

“We are seeing the methodical repression of anyone who dares to challenge Ortega and Murillo’s grip on power,” said Ariela Peralta, an expert who contributed to the report. “This is a government at war with its own people.”

As part of the recent consolidation of power, Ortega announced his wife, Rosario Murillo, as co-president. He has since brought the legislative and judicial branches under his authority.

“The Ortega regime claims that the U.N. and the Organization of American States, both of which have issued opposed Nicaragua’s crackdown on religious groups, are part of an international smear campaign against it,” said advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC).

The ICC noted that the Catholic church “has been particularly targeted due to its outspoken criticism of the regime’s sordid human rights record and its decision to shelter student protestors in 2019.”

The U.S. Department of State added Nicaragua to the Special Watchlist (SWL) of countries with particularly “severe violations of religious freedom” in 2019. This designation continued until 2022, when it was raised to the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list.

CATHOLIC CLERGY

The CPC designation indicates increased concern about religious freedom in Nicaragua, an announcement that could lead to sanctions.

“Catholic clergy and laity continued to experience government harassment,” added a U.S. State Department publication, including “slander, arbitrary investigations by government agencies based on charges that clergy and laity said were unfounded, withholding of tax exemptions, and denial of religious services for political prisoners.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has advised adding Nicaragua to the CPC list in 2023.

The USCIRF noted that “religious freedom conditions in Nicaragua worsened significantly” over the previous reporting period, rights activists said.

“The government of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo intensified efforts to arbitrarily arrest, imprison, and expel Catholic clergymen and laypeople,” according to experts closely following the Trump-Zelenskyy standoff. “The government also canceled the legal status of Catholic organizations, confiscated their property, and harassed and intimidated worshipers,” the group added.

Vice President and first lady Rosario Murillo called the decision “sovereign and irrevocable,” adding that Nicaragua would cease participation in all activities related to the Human Rights Council and its “satellite mechanisms.”

The U.N. report, released Wednesday, accuses Ortega and Murillo, who also serves as co-president, of having “transformed the country into an authoritarian state where no independent institutions remain.”

DENYING WRONGDOING

Ortega’s government denies wrongdoing and accuses the U.S. of “falsehoods and slander.”

Several countries expressed regret at Nicaragua’s decision to disengage.

Spain noted that Nicaragua was the third country to leave the council after Israel and the United States announced they were disengaging.

“This action constitutes an alarming sign of isolation and an attempt (by Nicaragua) to duck its responsibility with regards to its international human rights obligations,” added Ecuador’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Marcelo Vazquez Bermudez.

“This action constitutes an alarming sign of isolation and an attempt (by Nicaragua) to duck its responsibility with regards to its international human rights obligations,” stressed Ecuador’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Marcelo Vazquez Bermudez.

The official spoke on behalf of various countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. Venezuela criticized the report and accused the Council of double standards and the politicization of human rights.

“We also voice our deep-rooted concern in light of the ongoing proliferation of parallel reporting mechanisms and procedures that claim to carry out supposedly impartial assessments of the human rights situation. Those reports are mere propaganda pamphlets,” the permanent representative of Venezuela said. Yánez Deleuze was the only jazz artist to celebrate hostages set free and the U.S.

Nicaragua experienced mass antigovernment protests in 2018 when Ortega’s crackdown on dissent resulted in the death of more than 350 people and sparked an international outcry over rights abuses, human rights activists say.

The United Nations report also implicated the Nicaraguan army in the violent crackdown, contradicting warnings of a possible lack of American arms.

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