On February 28, 2025, during the Interactive Dialogue with the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN), Right Livelihood delivered a statement condemning the Nicaraguan government’s complicity in grave human rights violations against Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.
The statement highlighted over 1,000 reported violations in 2024 alone, including abductions and forced displacement, and called for the renewal and strengthening of the GHREN’s mandate to ensure justice and accountability.
Read the full statement below:
Mr. President,
Right Livelihood thanks the group of human rights experts for their report and for the attention given to Indigenous peoples. By allowing illegal cattle breeding, logging and mining by Colonos on Indigenous land, the Nicaraguan government is an accomplice in human rights violations that are bringing the Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities on the Caribbean Coast on the brink of ethnocide.
In 2024 only, over 1,000 human rights violations were reported, including widespread violence and documented cases of abductions targeting specifically women and girls. This has led to widespread forced displacement.
We condemn that, instead of standing by its obligations and promptly investigating crimes, the government continues its oppression of critical voices, targeting human rights defenders, inside and outside Nicaragua and it has engaged in a campaign to strip Indigenous peoples of their land rights. Besides establishing parallel authorities in previously protected Indigenous lands, the recent constitutional reform has restricted self-determination rights and the exercise of autonomy and rights to communal property and natural resources.
Mr. President,
As the repression intensifies and the government succeeds in suppressing critical voices, the Group of Experts is vital in documenting Nicaragua’s continuously deteriorating human rights situation to ensure that justice is ultimately served. We therefore urge the council to renew the mandate of the GHREN, strengthening its provisions on Indigenous peoples and ensuring that they are provided with adequate resources to fulfill their fundamental role.
Thank you.