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Nicaragua’s ‘systemic’ repression in human right spotlight in Geneva
Investigators tasked by the UN Human Rights Council to track alleged grave abuses of power by top Nicaraguan officials on Wednesday insisted that the International Court of Justice should prosecute what they called the systematic and systemic repression of the country’s people.
The Group of Experts on Nicaragua - who act in an independent capacity and are not UN staff - have previously reported that the Government’s violations appear to constitute crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment and torture - including rape.
Their latest report will be presented later this week to the Council, where UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Wednesday addressed ongoing violations across the Occupied Palestinian Territories as part of its scheduled session of work.
In its latest report, the Group of Experts on Nicaragua maintain that President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, have created “an authoritarian State where no independent institutions remain, opposition voices are silenced and the population…faces persecution, forced exile, and economic retaliation”.
Stifling dissent
It was in response to grave concerns about the severe repression of civil rights in Nicaragua that the international community decided in 2018 to establish an investigative body to report back to the Human Rights Council.
“We call on States to hold Nicaragua accountable for its violations of the UN Convention on Torture for the UN Convention on Statelessness before the International Court of Justice…the international community cannot just bear witness. It needs to take concrete measures,” said Reed Brody, member of the Group of Experts on Nicaragua.
“No country in the world has used the arbitrary detention of nationality against political opponents at the same scale that Nicaragua has done; and this is a violation of its obligations under international law under the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness,” Mr. Brody continued.
‘Machine of repression’
According to the panel’s chair, Jan-Michael Simon, State machinery and the ruling Sandinista party “have virtually fused into a unified machine of repression with domestic and transnational impact”.
This development - which has reduced the judicial, legislative and electoral powers “to mere bodies coordinated by the presidency” - has resulted in myriad deaths, “arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, expulsion of nationals, arbitrary deprivation of nationality”, Mr. Simon insisted.
The experts also established that the Nicaraguan army, police and paramilitary groups in 2018 crushed mass public protests that left more than 300 people dead.
Today, arbitrary detention, depriving Nicaraguans of their nationality and forced expulsions are also on the rise, they insisted.
The Government is targeting “anyone perceived as a threat”, their report continues, noting the authorities’ ongoing non-cooperation with their inquiry.
“This is a government at war with its own people,” said panel member Ariela Peralta.
“Nicaragua has become a place of surveillance and enforced silence for those who remain, while those who dare to resist, or are merely suspected of doing so, face a life of statelessness and exile,” said Mr. Brody.
ends
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
- Wide shot of the podium with speakers in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Jan-Michael Simon, Chair of the Group of Experts on Nicaragua: “We can today conclude that the State of Nicaragua and the ruling Sandinista party have virtually fused into a unified machine of repression. This machine is responsible for myriad cases of deaths, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, expulsion of nationals, arbitrary deprivation of nationality, et cetera.”
- Medium-wide, TV screens showing speaker, journalists, photographers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Jan-Michael Simon, Chair of the Group of Experts on Nicaragua: “The human rights violations of this machinery in the hands of the Nicaraguan regime are not only widespread and systematic, more than that, they are systemic. Thousands of victims, many now in the diaspora, demand the international community to prevent this machinery from continuing to violate human rights.”
- Medium-wide: journalists, photographers and podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Reed Bródy, member of Group of Experts on Nicaragua: “Among other provisions, the reform deletes the explicit constitutional prohibition against torture, eliminates the ban on censorship of the Press and enshrines the removal of citizenship for those declared to be, quote ‘enemies’ sorry – ‘traitors’ to the homeland.”
- Medium-wide: journalists, photographers and podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Reed Bródy, member of Group of Experts on Nicaragua: “Ortega and Maria can now strip away all rights, almost at will, summon the military to act as their police enforcers and unleash masked volunteer police now enshrined in the Constitution to do their dirty work.”
- Medium-wide, podium speakers, journalists, TV screens showing speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Reed Bródy, member of Group of Experts on Nicaragua: “We call on States to hold Nicaragua accountable for its violations of the UN Convention on Torture for the UN Convention on Statelessness before the International Court of Justice. The international community cannot just bear witness, it needs to take concrete measures. These include targeted sanctions against members of the Government.”
- Medium-wide, TV journalist, control booths, podium speakers reflected in glass.
- Medium, photographer.
- Wide, Press room, TV journalist, photographer, control booths.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
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- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
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“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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