NEW YORK - The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua called on the international community to hold Nicaragua's Government accountable for serious human rights violations and international crimes as it presented its findings to the General Assembly for the first time.
"For decades, Nicaragua championed Central America at the UN as a region of peace, freedom, democracy, and development," said Jan-Michael Simon, Chair of the Group. "It is tragic that it now appears before the General Assembly as a State accused of dismantling the rule of law and democratic institutions."
The Group's latest findings, based on more than 1,900 interviews and 9,300 documents, reveal a deliberate State policy to silence dissent in the country and abroad, and consolidate absolute power through violence, fear, and the systematic erosion of rights and the rule of law. Some of the human rights violations documented by the group constitute crimes against humanity.
The growing number of enforced disappearances is deeply troubling, as recently denounced by the UN Working Group of Experts on Enforced Disappearances.
"The Government's increasing use of enforced disappearance reflects a cruelty not only to the disappeared persons, but to their relatives who live in anguish and uncertainty," said Reed Brody, member of the Group of Experts. "The repression is so bad, and the legal system so predatory, that nerve-wracked families expose themselves to further abuse just by looking for their loved ones."
The Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has also expanded its repression beyond its own borders - targeting real or perceived opponents abroad. Thousands have been victimized: stripped of their nationality, legal identity, properties and livelihoods, monitored, harassed and threatened (read the latest report of the Group on this topic).
"The deprivation of nationality has become a tool to punish and erase those who dare to dissent," said Ariela Peralta member of the Group of Experts. "It destroys lives in practical, devastating ways-separating families, blocking access to education or work, and cutting people off from their homeland."
In June 2025, retired army major Roberto Samcam, a well-known Government critic, was murdered in Costa Rica. It was at least the fourth attack on an exile there.
"Exiles who oppose Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo live in constant fear," said Brody. "The Government has built a machinery of persecution that follows its citizens abroad, denying them vital documents and re-entry to the country, intimidating their relatives back home, and manipulating international law enforcement mechanisms."
The Experts also noted Nicaragua's unprecedented withdrawal from five key UN agencies, as well as the Human Rights Council, as part of a strategy to evade scrutiny and consolidate impunity.
"The Government's isolation from the multilateral system is not an affirmation of sovereignty, but a quest for impunity," said Simon. "Nicaragua's consideration in this forum is a warning sign that repression in the country has reached a level that demands heightened global scrutiny."
"The international community must not simply bear witness, but should take concrete measures - legal actions, prosecutions, and targeted sanctions - to hold the Government and individual perpetrators to account," said Peralta. "The courage of victims and the persistence of those who document their suffering show that change remains possible."
The Group called on Member States to take decisive action, including by strengthening protection and asylum mechanisms for exiled Nicaraguans, and pursuing accountability before the International Court of Justice for violations of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
