Geneva, Dec 18 (EFE).- The United Nations’ Human Rights Council held an “interactive dialogue” session on Monday on the situation in Nicaragua, where both the United Nations and delegations from different countries, as well as Nicaraguan dissidents, highlighted the deterioration of fundamental freedoms and the “government’s continued distancing of itself from human rights, the rule of law and other core democratic principles.”
“Every day the country deviates further from human rights, deepening people’s suffering, triggering the exodus of youth, and undermining the future of democratic public institutions,” said UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif at the opening of the session.
“Political and Indigenous leaders, members of the Catholic Church, human rights defenders, journalists and other individuals have been systematically targeted by the Government for expressing different views. Many are in exile, with no possibility of return,” Al-Nashif stressed.
Among these exiles is Medardo Mairena, who was part of a Nicaraguan civil society delegation that participated in Monday’s dialogue in Geneva.
“We hope that the international community will help us get out of this situation, away from a government that does not respect human rights inside Nicaragua. We know the difficulties of my fellow activists who are still political prisoners,” Mairena, one of the founders of the Peasant Movement, told EFE.
According to Al-Nashif, the number two at the UN Human Rights Office, there are 17 women and 54 men in Nicaragua, including political opponents and human rights defenders, who continue to suffer arbitrary detention, with reports of torture and threats to both prisoners and their families.
“Forceful steps must be taken to put an end to the systematic repression we are witnessing in Nicaragua, so that we can achieve the defense of human rights and Nicaraguans can return to our homeland,” said Mairena, who is currently in exile in the United States and has been persecuted in his country for leading the opposition to the Interoceanic Canal project.
The Deputy High Commissioner denounced recent events in Nicaragua, such as the cancellation of the legal status of the Indigenous and Afro-descendant political party YATAMA and the detention of two of its parliamentarians in the National Assembly.
“Our Office is concerned about the health and physical integrity of one of them, a 71-year-old man, whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown since his arrest on 28 Sept. 2023 in Bilwi, in a situation that amounts to enforced disappearance,” Al-Nashif stressed, referring to Brooklyn Rivera a deputy and leader of the Miskito People, and deplored that YATAMA’s seats were illegally reassigned to the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front party.
She also cited the case of a woman who was arrested in April for wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Long live free Nicaragua,” and who is currently only allowed to see her one- and eight-year-old children for 45 minutes each month.
She also cited the case of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was not part of the group of priests released following a recent agreement between Nicaragua and the Vatican, and who therefore remains in prison in conditions that “violate international standards, as he continues to be subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, with sporadic family visits, deprived of sufficient food, adequate medical care or any reading materials.”
According to lawyer and activist Alexandra Salazar of the Legal Defense Unit, UN sessions like Monday’s “must continue to put pressure on Nicaragua for the return of democracy, free elections and the release of political prisoners.”
“We are very concerned about the situation of people in prison, the way they are tortured, and we see that many people are subjected to situations of forced disappearance, unjust detention and isolation,” she added in statements to EFE.
Attorney General Wendy Morales participated in Monday’s meeting on behalf of the Nicaraguan government, reiterating the Ortega regime’s “total rejection” of the dialogue, calling it “a brazen form of aggression and interference against the dignity of the Nicaraguan people and our sovereignty.”
These sessions, she added, “arise from resolutions based on media campaigns of disinformation and hatred that seek sanctions and blockades to the detriment of the elementary principles of human rights.” EFE
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