(Washington, DC) – Nicaraguan authorities have shut down hundreds of nongovernmental organizations, using highly restrictive legislation that undermines freedom of association and freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Affected governments, especially those in Latin America, should condemn this systematic dismantling of civil society organizations, which play a vital role in a country where there are no longer independent state institutions that can exercise control over the executive branch.
Since June 6, 2022, Nicaraguan authorities have passed laws and resolutions cancelling the legal registration of more than 770 non-governmental organizations and foundations, forcing them to close their operations in the country. These include medical associations and organizations working on a range of issues, from child protection to women’s rights and climate change mitigation. The government has cancelled the registration of more than 950 organizations since 2018. Many of these decisions are based on abusive legislation, including a “foreign agents” law, passed in recent years by lawmakers allied with the administration of President Daniel Ortega.
“The Ortega government in Nicaragua has systematically shut down human rights organizations and other nongovernmental groups to curb their efforts to expose abuses and the authorities’ failure to provide services to the Nicaraguan people,” said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, acting Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Nicaraguan authorities are so obsessed with eliminating civic space that they have targeted groups that provide vital assistance to poor communities in a country that has been severely affected by two hurricanes and a pandemic.”
Among these recent actions is the decision of the National Assembly to cancel, June 30ththe legal registration of 100 groups, saying that they had They failed to provide “detailed financial statements,” the names of their board members, “previous international donations,” and “information on the identity and origin of all donors,” and that they had failed to “promote policies of transparency, integrity and public trust.”
The closure of non-governmental organizations is part of a much broader effort to silence civil society groups and independent media through a combination of repressive tactics including abusive laws, intimidation, harassment, arbitrary detentions, and prosecutions of human rights defenders and journalists. Since taking power in 2007, the Ortega government has dismantled all institutional checks on presidential power, including the judiciary.
Among the groups stripped of their legal registration There are dozens of humanitarian organizationswhich play a critical role in ensuring access to health services, water and food for low-income, mostly rural communities.
In mid-March 2022, the National Assembly cancelled the legal registration of a global medical charity that provides free medical care to children and adults. For more than 20 years, the organization had operated medical programs in several cities across the country and provided medical care to thousands of Nicaraguans. It was one of 25 groups shut down on the same day in March by the National Assembly, which said the groups had “failed to comply with and violated the laws,” without further explanation.
In mid-August 2021, the Ministry of the Interior cancelled the registration of an international development organisation that had been operating in Nicaragua for decades, including by promoting climate change resilience and food security. The work of the organisation, which provided support to thousands of people in recent years, focused primarily on improving the social and economic conditions of women and indigenous communities on the Caribbean Coast and in the north of the country.
In mid-August, several more groups were deregistered. Authorities said they had failed to comply with legal requirements, including “clearly defining their financial sources, their portfolio of projects, their social impact and whether these are in line with the purpose and objectives of the entity.” The development organization publicly denied the allegations.
Nicaragua has one of the highest poverty rates in Latin America and the Caribbean. In March 2021, UNICEF It is estimated that Following the two hurricanes of 2020, around “1.8 million people, including 720,000 children, are still in need of humanitarian assistance, especially among indigenous communities on Nicaragua’s northern Caribbean coast.”
Authorities have not offered a clear explanation for each deregistration. Official decisions merely state that the affected organizations had not complied with legislation, specifically abusive laws adopted by members of the National Assembly allied with the Ortega government, including the “foreign agents” law passed in October 2020 and the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Non-Profit Organizations passed in March 2022.
Law on “regulation and control of non-profit organizations” It allows The Interior Ministry has asked the National Assembly to cancel the legal registration of groups for “using the organization(s) to promote campaigns to destabilize the country.”
The law allows authorities to confiscate a group’s assets if it is deregistered for committing “illegal acts,” violating “public order” or obstructing the “control and surveillance” of the Interior Ministry. The law states that all organizations can only have a maximum of 25 percent “foreign members.”
The “foreign agents” law requires individuals or entities to register as “foreign agents” with the Ministry of the Interior if they “directly or indirectly” receive funding from abroad. Those who fail to do so can face fines, cancellation of their official registration and confiscation of their assets.
To register as a “foreign agent,” a group must obtain a “registration certificate” from the Home Office, meeting onerous and broadly defined requirements. “Foreign agents” have to provide reports and updates on any changes to the organization’s “address, contact information,” “board members,” or “any other information required by the Home Office.”
Organizations must inform the ministry “in advance” of the funds they receive, as well as their “use and destination,” and submit “monthly reports on activities related to their performance as ‘foreign agents.’” The Ministry of the Interior can also require organizations to submit “additional information” when it “deems it appropriate.” Without the certificate, organizations cannot “carry out movements of financial resources and/or material assets,” or open or maintain a bank account.
Several people interviewed by Human Rights Watch, including members of arbitrarily closed civil society groups, said that authorities had consistently failed to issue certificates, based on apparently arbitrary reasons. Some said that authorities had required that information be submitted on colored paper rather than white paper. Others said that authorities had pressured them to remove or replace some board members who were seen as critical of the government as a condition for issuing the certificate.
“The implementation of the legislation seems to be designed in such a way as to make it impossible to comply with,” said a former member of a group that was disbanded.
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