03-05-2025 CBN News

Nicaragua has withdrawn itself from the U.N. Human Rights Council after being criticized for “its systematic crackdown on human rights, democratic norms, and religious groups,” a persecution watchdog group reports.

President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President and First Lady, Rosario Murillo, called their decision to leave the Human Rights Council last week a “sovereign and irrevocable” move.

Their announcement comes days after the U.N. Human Rights Council rebuked leaders for cracking down on religious groups.

“We are seeing the methodical repression of anyone who dares to challenge Ortega and Murillo’s grip on power,” said Ariela Peralta, an expert who contributed to the report. “This is a government at war with its own people.”

According to persecution watchdog group, International Christian Concern, Nicaragua has withdrawn itself from the U.N. Human Rights Council after being criticized for “its systematic crackdown on human rights, democratic norms, and religious groups,” a persecution watchdog group reports.

President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President and First Lady, Rosario Murillo, called their decision to leave the Human Rights Council last week a “sovereign and irrevocable” move.

Their announcement comes days after the U.N. Human Rights Council rebuked leaders for cracking down on religious groups.

“We are seeing the methodical repression of anyone who dares to challenge Ortega and Murillo’s grip on power,” said Ariela Peralta, an expert who contributed to the report. “This is a government at war with its own people.”

According to persecution watchdog group,International Christian Concern, the leaders have reshaped the democratic nation into a pseudo-dictatorial regime.

“As part of the recent consolidation of power, Ortega announced his wife, Rosario Murillo, as co-president. He has since brought the legislative and judicial branches under his authority,” the group reported.

The U.N. report backs those claims citing that Ortega and Murillo “transformed the country into an authoritarian state where no independent institutions remain.”

Experts with the U.N. urged legal action against Nicaragua, pointing to human rights abuses in the country.

The non-profit law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom International, has already taken this step against the country because of its mistreatment of 11 pastors who were held in prison for months and face $80 million in fines.

As CBN News reported, pastors and ministry leaders affiliated with the Nicaraguan branch of a U.S.-based Christian ministry known as the Puerta de la Montaña were arrested in November 2023 after holding mass evangelism campaigns spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in the country.

According to a Nicaraguan Police press release, the pastors were accused of money laundering and organized crime.

The Christian ministry publicly denied the allegations and argued the charges were fabricated because the authoritarian regime of Nicaragua felt threatened by the success of the outreaches.

Although the government was unable to produce any evidence of the alleged illicit activity or alleged unlawful funds in court, the pastors were imprisoned for over eight months.

They could not contact their families or their own legal counsel but were rather set up with government-appointed lawyers who failed to provide them with any charging documents or files to prepare a defense adequately.     

Last March, the 11 individuals were formally sentenced to between 12 and 15 years in prison and ordered to pay over $80 million in fines per person.      

A month later, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International filed a precautionary measures request with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights saying the pastors were “fraudulently convicted.”

Shortly afterward, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on Nicaragua to address the imprisonment of the Puerta de la Montaña leaders and ensure their human rights protections.

And although those 11 pastors have since been released, Nicaragua has done nothing to further protect or exonerate them.

Now, the ADF is asking the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to condemn Nicaragua for human rights violations and hold the government accountable for its failure to comply with the Court’s previous orders to protect the rights of the religious leaders.

“These Christian leaders should never have been unjustly imprisoned in the first place, nor expelled from Nicaragua,” said ADF International legal counsel Kristina Hjelkrem. “The government must be held accountable for the persecution it inflicted on them. The situation in the country remains dire, and we will continue to seek justice for those suffering under the Nicaraguan regime.”

But Nicaragua appears to not want to be held accountable. According to Reuters, Ortega has previously ignored the UN and the Organization of American States, saying their reports are all a part of an international smear campaign against the country.

Murillo dismissed the U.N.’s most recent report as “falsehoods” and “slander.”

Nicaragua was placed on the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list in 2022, which is defined as a country “engaged in” or tolerating “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

“Catholic clergy and laity continued to experience government harassment,” said a U.S. State Department publication, citing media reports, “including slander, arbitrary investigations by government agencies based on charges that clergy and laity said were unfounded, withholding of tax exemptions, and denial of religious services for political prisoners.”

The country was placed back on the list in 2023 at the request of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

In its most recent annual report, USCIRF noted that “religious freedom conditions in Nicaragua worsened significantly” over the previous reporting period.

“The government of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo intensified its efforts to arbitrarily arrest, imprison, and expel Catholic clergymen and laypeople. The government also canceled the legal status of Catholic organizations, confiscated their property, and harassed and intimidated worshipers,” it reads.