"Nicaragua: Repressive machinery used against human rights defenders and democracy", 03 November 2021

...Today the Observatory and CENIDH are releasing the report "The New Laws of Repression" which details a new phase in the escalation of repression in Nicaragua that began on 20 October 2020. The new phase has been heralded by the enactment of laws that create abusive restrictions for activities conducted by civil society organisations. The laws also call into question international funding which is deemed to be an instrument of foreign intervention or a mechanism used for organised crime and terrorism, thus transforming the freedom of association to defend human rights and the exercise of civil and political rights into crimes or cybercrimes for promoting national hatred that are punishable by life imprisonment...

The government has installed an official rhetoric portraying human rights defenders, journalists and opponents as the “internal enemy”, which clearly represents an attempt to dissuade people from defending human rights, to frighten those who criticise it and to silence them...

The Observatory and CENIDH call on the Nicaraguan authorities and the international community to take all necessary measures to restore the rule of law in Nicaragua and to guarantee the freedoms of expression and association in the country...

The Nicaraguan judiciary must restore and give primacy to the principle of the independence of the justice system. The signatory organisations urge the authorities to immediately release the more than 150 people arbitrarily detained as a result of government repression, put an end to the criminalisation of their activities, and repeal all repressive legislation...