The IACHR condemns the “arbitrary deprivation of nationality” of Nicaraguan express prisoners

First modification: 02/14/2023 – 01:14Last modification: 02/14/2023 – 01:12

Hundreds of opponents were detained in Nicaragua as part of the repression unleashed after the 2018 protests against Ortega, in power since 2007 and re-elected in 2021 in contested elections.

On Thursday, the government released 222 political prisoners and expelled them to the United States, considering them “traitors to the country.”

The Parliament, made up of supporters of Ortega, approved that same day a law by virtue of which “traitors to the homeland lose the quality of Nicaraguan national.” The rule requires a second legislative approval in the second half of this year, which is taken for granted.

Nationality constitutes “a non-derogable right of all persons, and the arbitrary deprivation of it, especially as a penalty or sanction for political reasons, is contrary to international human rights law,” the IACHR stated in a statement.

This autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS) recalls that Nicaragua has been a party to the Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons since 2013 and urges it “to repeal recent legislative changes contrary to international and inter-American standards.”

Through the Special Follow-up Mechanism for Nicaragua, the IACHR undertakes to “closely follow the human rights situation of the 222 people released” and urges the Ortega government to release all the people “arbitrarily detained in the context of the crisis” in the country.

The organization “greets”, however, the release, which “puts an end to years of arbitrary confinement, under deplorable conditions of detention, for being considered opponents of the government, legitimately exercising the fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly and association, as well as the Defense of human rights”.