Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Nicaragua

A/HRC/RES/58/18View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A document of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 4Human rights situations that require the Council's attention, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

6 versions · 2019–2025

2025A/HRC/RES/58/18Promotion and protection of human rights in NicaraguaLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/52/2Promotion and protection of human rights in NicaraguaCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/49/3Promotion and protection of human rights in NicaraguaCompare with previous version
2021A/HRC/RES/46/2Promotion and protection of human rights in NicaraguaCompare with previous version
2020A/HRC/RES/43/2Promotion and protection of human rights in NicaraguaCompare with previous version

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1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 topics

Accountability Administration of Justice Civil and Political Rights Experts Human Rights International Cooperation Nicaragua

What does this mandate say?

27 operative paragraphs

Expresses grave concern at the continued deterioration of democracy, the dismantling of the rule of law and the separation of powers, and the grave situation of human rights in Nicaragua, in particular with regard to the enjoyment of civil and political rights, including the right to a nationality, continuing reports of human rights violations and abuses, the lack of accountability and independent, transparent and impartial investigations since April 2018, including with respect to the killing of at least 300 individuals, the persistent bans on public demonstrations and the disproportionate and lethal use of force and acts of intimidation and harassment by the police to repress peaceful protests, and acts of violence by armed groups, including against Indigenous Peoples and Afrodescendent communities in the regions of the Caribbean Coast, as well as continued reports of the increasing incidence of unlawful arrests and arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, expedited trials without due process, of harassment, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, gender-related killings, including femicides, and sexual and gender-based violence in detention and against those who visit detainees;

Condemns in the strongest terms the removal of the explicit recognition of the prohibition of torture from the Constitution of Nicaragua;

Expresses concern at the worsening restrictions on civic and democratic space and the repression of dissent in Nicaragua, which includes acts of intimidation, harassment and unlawful or arbitrary surveillance of journalists and other media workers, human rights defenders, including defenders who are women, Indigenous, Afrodescendent and environmental human rights defenders, community and religious leaders, peasants and members of the campesino movement, academics and students, artists and cultural workers, victims of human rights violations and abuses and their family members, and individuals expressing views that are critical of the Government of Nicaragua, and urges the Government to publicly condemn and ensure accountability for any attacks or acts of intimidation or harassment, and sexual and gender-based violence, and to take measures to ensure a safe and enabling environment, both online and offline, for the above-mentioned persons to carry out their work freely and without fear of persecution or reprisal;

Expresses profound concern at the dramatic increase in the arbitrary cancellation of legal registration of, and the unduly restrictive administrative and financial constraints imposed on, civil society and religious organizations, universities and independent media outlets, including those working with Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendants, women, children and adolescents, and other groups in vulnerable situations, and the impact such closures have on independent human rights monitoring and the enjoyment of human rights, online and offline, especially the rights to freedom of opinion, of expression, of association and of peaceful assembly, to privacy and to education, as set out in articles 12, 19, 20 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articles 17, 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and urges the Government of Nicaragua to restore the legal registration of civil society and religious organizations, universities and independent media outlets that have been cancelled since 2018, to restore the independence and academic freedom of the private universities that have been placed under government control and that of the public universities that have been stripped of their autonomy, to return arbitrarily seized assets, including confiscated property, and to allow for the continuation of their work without any type of intimidation, threat or reprisal;

Urges Nicaragua to promote, protect, respect and ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights for all, and to take all measures necessary to prevent, put an end to and investigate violations and abuses of human rights and to hold those responsible to account;

Urges the Government of Nicaragua to allow and facilitate peaceful protests and public demonstrations and to repeal or amend legislation that may unduly restrict human rights, including the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information, of peaceful assembly and of association, the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, the right to a nationality and the right to privacy, as recognized in international law, and that may prevent victims of human rights violations from enjoying the right to an effective remedy, extend the period of detention without formal charge or criminalize dissenting voices;

Urgently calls upon the authorities in Nicaragua to cease immediately the use of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, as well as of threats and other forms of intimidation or alternative measures of detention, as a means to repress dissent, to release immediately and unconditionally all political prisoners and all those who have been unlawfully, arbitrarily or unjustly detained, as well as those who have been prosecuted under ambiguous criminal laws or laws that arbitrarily restrict the human rights of the Nicaraguan population, to annul their sentences and waive charges against them, to respect fair trial guarantees and due process, to clarify the whereabouts of those who have been forcibly disappeared, to cease acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and to ensure that conditions of detention comply with applicable human rights obligations and are consistent with standards such as the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), the Principles on Effective Interviewing for Investigations and Information-Gathering (the Méndez Principles) and the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules), including access to a lawyer, a health professional and medication and allowing for family visits;

Urges Nicaragua to combat impunity, to ensure accountability and justice for victims of human rights violations and to hold perpetrators to account, including by considering designing and implementing a comprehensive action plan for accountability that is inclusive and victim- and survivor-centred, by conducting independent, transparent and impartial investigations into the multiple forms of repression and violence, including in the context of the electoral processes, that have been reported since April 2018 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and since 2023 by the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua and other United Nations experts, including alleged crimes against humanity, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture, sexual violence and other grave human rights violations and abuses, by ensuring that victims are provided with effective remedies and reparations and by amending the Amnesty Law of 2019, ensuring guarantees of non-repetition and repealing the constitutional reforms of January 2025;

Urges the Government of Nicaragua to take effective measures to provide a safe and enabling environment to access justice and obtain redress for victims of human rights violations and their families, including political prisoners and opposition members, those with long-term injuries and disabilities, Indigenous Peoples and Afrodescendants, particularly in the regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, including access to physical and mental health services, without discrimination;

Expresses concern at the increase in the number of femicides and other acts of sexual and gender-based violence in the country, at the dismantling of relevant State institutions, at the lack of effective complaint mechanisms and at the cancellation of the legal status of civil society organizations that tended to victims of violence, particularly Indigenous and Afrodescendent women and girls, and urges Nicaragua to take effective measures to prevent, investigate and ensure accountability for sexual and gender-based violence, including gender-related killings, and to take a survivor-centred approach to sexual and gender-based violence and abuse;

Urges the Government of Nicaragua to take effective measures, in full and meaningful consultation with Indigenous Peoples and Afrodescendants and in accordance with its legal obligations, to prevent and address the increasing violence and discrimination committed against them, including by conducting prompt and independent investigations into reported harassment, threats, criminalization, arbitrary detention, confiscation of property, prohibition of entering the country, forced displacement, torture and mutilation, sexual and gender-based violence, attacks, killings and land seizures by armed groups;

Also urges the Government of Nicaragua to adopt effective measures to guarantee the independence, transparency and impartiality of the justice system, the legislative, the electoral authorities, the control and oversight authorities, the National Police, the Attorney General’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office and the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, to cease its political interference in the judiciary and the legislative, including through the arbitrary detention of magistrates and other high-ranking judicial and legislative officials, to uphold its international obligations with respect to fair trial guarantees and to adopt effective measures to re-establish the separation of powers and the rule of law;

Encourages the Government of Nicaragua to adopt a time-bound action plan to implement the recommendations made by international and regional human rights mechanisms, including those made in the reports of the High Commissioner, the report of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua and by the treaty bodies, and the recommendations received during the third and fourth cycles of the universal periodic review of Nicaragua, in meaningful consultation with civil society and victims;

Calls upon the Government of Nicaragua to prevent, refrain from and publicly condemn, investigate, punish and redress any acts of intimidation, harassment or reprisal against political leaders, journalists and other media workers, human rights defenders, religious leaders, business people, Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendants, peasants and members of the campesino movement, academics and students, artists and cultural workers, and any individual critical of the Government, including against those who are part of, cooperate or seek to cooperate with international and regional bodies, including the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights, and with regional mechanisms;

Urges the Government of Nicaragua to respect all civil and political rights, including the right to a nationality, and to guarantee the conditions for the voluntary, safe return to Nicaragua, without fear of new reprisals, intimidation or attacks, of all those living in exile;

Encourages States to adopt measures, in line with international law and standards, conducive to hosting individuals who have been deprived of their nationality, forced to leave, denied entry into the territory of Nicaragua or have fled the country, and their families, including by facilitating their fair and effective access to identification and asylum procedures;

Urges the Government of Nicaragua to adopt electoral and institutional reforms and to reinstate and engage in a dialogue with all political parties, civil society and other actors in Nicaragua or in exile, with the aim of ensuring genuine elections that are free and fair, carried out in a transparent manner with independent international observers;

Decides to renew, for a period of two years, the mandate of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua as established in its resolution 49/3;

Requests the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua to submit a comprehensive report to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-first and sixty-fourth sessions, during an interactive dialogue, and to present an oral update to the Council at its sixtieth and sixty-third sessions;

Also requests the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua to present its most recent report, in combination with an oral update on its work, to the General Assembly at its eightieth and eighty-first sessions, followed by an interactive dialogue;

Requests the immediate operationalization of the mandate renewal, taking all administrative and legal measures to guarantee no interruption to its work, and requests the Secretary-General to provide the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua with full administrative, technical, security, legal, data-processing, forensic accounting and logistical support and the resources necessary to enable it to carry out its mandate;

Requests the High Commissioner to strengthen monitoring and engagement, including by preparing reports that are comprehensive, gender-responsive and take into account race and ethnic origin, on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua, building on previous reports of the High Commissioner and the reports and recommendations of Human Rights Council mechanisms and those of the treaty bodies, including on justice and due process for political dissidents and groups in vulnerable situations, and to present them to the Council at its sixtieth and sixty-third sessions, to be followed by an interactive dialogue, and to present an oral update to the Council at its fifty-ninth and sixty-second sessions;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to strengthen its engagement by continuing to analyse legislation relating to civic and democratic space, including the impact of the latest legislative and constitutional reforms, the judicial sector and amnesties, with a view to providing the support necessary for Nicaragua to fulfil its human rights obligations and commitments, and to continue to seek cooperation with the authorities of Nicaragua;

Calls upon the Government of Nicaragua to cooperate fully with the Office of the High Commissioner and its Regional Office for Central America, the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms, including the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, and with the relevant treaty bodies by, inter alia, granting them unfettered, full and transparent access throughout the country and facilitating visits, including to detention facilities, and providing necessary information, and to positively consider the recommendations made in their reports and their offers of technical assistance, and the requests for country visits made by the special procedures in accordance with the standing invitation it extended in 2006;

Strongly encourages the Government of Nicaragua to reconsider its decision to disengage from the Human Rights Council and all activities relating to the Council and its mechanisms;

Requests that the Office of the High Commissioner be provided with the resources necessary to continue to fulfil its technical cooperation and human rights monitoring and reporting mandates;

Decides to remain actively seized of the matter and to consider all measures available to the Human Rights Council to strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights in Nicaragua and cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner.

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