The report focuses on the events that have taken place since 2018, a year in which huge public protests and demonstrations took place, followed in turn by a strong governmental reaction.
This statement was originally published on derechosdigitales.org
The purpose of this report is to share an overview of the current human rights situation in Nicaragua, as it relates to digital technologies. We will focus on the events that have taken place since 2018, a year in which huge public protests and demonstrations took place, followed in turn by a strong governmental reaction.
As we will explore below, in the face of the complex political context in the country, in which the executive branch concentrates the power and control over state institutions and the population[1], digital environments have represented a space for disputes. On the one hand, the Internet has been a privileged vehicle for human rights defenders and journalists, both inside and outside Nicaragua, to disseminate information and denounce abuses, even to the international community. On the other hand, these people have been targets of censorship, repression and harassment by governmental entities, legitimized by abusive regulations.
The analysis of the implications of the context of human rights violations in the digital sphere is crucial to understand the closing process of the Nicaraguan civic space in recent years, so we hope that this report will serve as an input to international human rights organizations and authorities.
The text is based on the review of secondary sources of information, as well as some interviews with activists close to the local context. It is divided into three sections. In the first one, we will explore the human rights situation in Nicaragua, identifying the main regulatory frameworks that have criminalized the conduct of human rights defenders, journalists and political opposition to the government. In the second section, we will present the main tendencies regarding the violation of rights and their link with digital technologies. Finally, we will analyze the context faced by independent media.
Regulatory framework applicable to the digital environment
After the series of major social protests occurred in Nicaragua in 2018 and the violent reaction of the Government, the rates of human rights violations have increased in the country[2]. In those mobilizations, 76 people were reported killed and 868 injured, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in addition to a series of arbitrary detentions[3]. State repression was combined with measures to legitimize such actions. In a period of five years, a legislative framework has been consolidated giving the Government powers to censor, repress and condemn citizens, journalists, the media, human rights defenders and civil society organizations.
The civic space has been significantly stifled due to legislations that impose administrative measures on civil society organizations, operating as barriers to limit the work and legal permanence of such institutions in the country. This has resulted in the cancellation of the legal status of 2,634 organizations between 2018 and 2022, according to data from the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression (SRFOE) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which states that “95% of them would have been cancelled in 2022” (SRFOE, 2023, p.299).
