GENEVA - UN experts* today urged Nicaraguan authorities to clarify the fate and whereabouts of more than 120 people who have been forcibly disappeared in the country, including those detained in connection with the 2018 human rights crisis.
The disappeared individuals reportedly include Indigenous leaders defending land and natural resources, elders, women, and people with ties to political parties, as well as others with no known political affiliations, who are perceived as dissenting with official positions.
"Everyone who is trying to defend their rights is at risk of being forcibly disappeared in Nicaragua. This must end immediately," experts from the UN Working Group on Involuntary of Enforced Disappearances said.
"These enforced disappearances appear to be ordered at the highest levels of authority and are designed to instill fear across society, sending the message that anyone who voices a differing opinion may suffer the same fate," they said.
They echoed the findings of the Group of Independent Experts on Nicaragua in April 2025, which established that the executive power constitutes the core of the country's repressive system. The Presidency has several advisors whose official responsibilities are often unknown, and who seem to play key roles in the repression machinery, receiving and executing direct instructions that are implemented at all levels of the State.
The experts expressed regret that they have received no responses from the Nicaraguan government to any humanitarian cases transmitted since 2018 and that the government is not cooperating with the Working Group despite the requests made.
"It is only through full and effective cooperation that the fate and whereabouts of the forcibly disappeared can be determined and their families informed," the experts said.
According to the Working Group's records, more than 120 people are still missing. "The actual number could be higher, as many families and legal representatives are afraid to report due to fear of reprisals," the experts said.
The experts emphasised the importance of accountability and justice at all levels of the chain of command, stressing that all judicial actors responsible for apprehensions, arrests, detentions, custody, transfers and imprisonment, as well as trials, are ultimately implicated in the commission of the crime of enforced disappearance.
"We call on Nicaraguan authorities to stop arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances, to release all those still detained arbitrarily, and to ensure their families know their fate and whereabouts. Authorities must also investigate human rights violations, in particular torture, sexual violence and ill-treatment. The suffering of those in detention and their families must end," the experts said.
The Working Group is in contact with the Nicaraguan Government about this issue and offers its technical assistance and cooperation.
