The new amendment to the Nicaraguan Constitution will have dire consequences on human rights

On November 22, the National Assembly of Nicaragua approved an amendment to the Constitution that extends the presidential term from five to six years, elevates the role of the vice presidency to that of “co-presidency,” and eliminates the constitutional prohibition on censoring the press.

It also establishes that all fundamental rights can be suspended during a state of emergency and lowers the threshold that allows the intervention of the army in internal police action, which can now be requested by the government whenever the “stability” of the State requires it.

Unlimited power

He Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua* expressed great concern this Monday about this reform to the Magna Carta, warning that grants the government of President Daniel Ortega “practically unlimited power on the population of the nation.”

This power can also be exercised by the current holder of the vice presidency, Rosario Murillo, the wife of Daniel Ortega.

Experts warned of the “disastrous and transcendental” consequences of constitutional change for the fundamental rights of the Nicaraguan people.

“After having practically eradicated independent journalism in Nicaragua, the government has now removed the constitutional ban on censoring the media of communication,” highlighted the president of the Group of Experts.

Elimination of the dignity of the person

Jan-Michael Simon also highlighted the elimination “of respect for the dignity of the human person as a principle of the nationputting Nicaragua in contradiction with the global consensus that considers dignity as the cornerstone of the international order based on human rights.”

Since Ortega’s return to the presidency in 2007, there have been twelve constitutional reforms. On this occasion, the amendment affects more than one hundred articles of the Magna Carta.

The president of the Group of Experts pointed out that everything seems to indicate that the government’s objective is “legalize and consolidate their control over unrestricted power.”

Dissolution of the division of powers

“By adopting imprecise language, this reform seems to pursue the formalization of the de facto dissolution of separation, independence, cooperative balance and mutual control between the different powers of the State,” explained Simon.

The expert who leads the Group specified that the new text no longer explicitly refers to ‘powers’, but simply to ‘organs’, “and states that these will be ‘coordinated’ by the presidency”, that is gives rise to the subordination of all public powers to the president of the country.

volunteer police

In addition to extending the presidential term, elevating the role of the vice presidency and eliminating the separation of powers, the reform creates an auxiliary body of “volunteer police” made up of Nicaraguan citizens to support the National Police, and adds to the national symbols the flag of the Sandinista Popular Liberation Front, the revolutionary movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979 and to which Daniel Ortega belonged.

The Group appealed to the international community to Urge the Nicaraguan government to immediately restore the separation of powers and other democratic principlesand that complies with its international obligations.

* The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua is an independent body mandated by the Human Rights Council of the UN. Created in March 2022, it has the mission of carrying out thorough and independent investigations into alleged human rights violations and abuses committed in Nicaragua since April 2018.