(NEW YORK, NY, OCTOBER 2, 2018) The total intransigence of the Ortega regime in Nicaragua to halt its gross human rights violations requires urgent action by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. That was the message given to the Inter-American Commission on Human 
Rights, whose efforts to halt these violations in 114 different cases have been widely ignored by the regime.
That message was delivered to the Commission in an October 2 brief by the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP), a non-profit organization of about 2,000 pro bono lawyers.
The ISLP brief cited the Commission’s 94-page report in June 2018 documenting beatings, harassment, torture, and extrajudicial killing of journalists, protesters, academics, and human rights activists. It also cited the Commission’s directions to the government to halt its abuse of over 100 Nicaraguans, and the government’s continuing, obstinate abuse.
Significantly, the ISLP brief pointed to a rarely used legal procedure which empowers the Commission to escalate the pressure on recalcitrant governments. ISLP urged the Commission to use that procedure and promptly request the prestigious Inter-American Court to take “provisional measures” against Nicaragua.
The Court can deploy a variety of powerful sanctions against the regime and its leaders to compel compliance with the rule of law.
At least 300 killings have been reported in the regime’s crackdown on protests. The Commission has reported that many specific victims, whom the Commission ordered the government to protect, have been subjected by the government to violence, harassment, and arbitrary detention after the Commission acted. The Ortega regime also expelled officials from the UN Human Rights Commission investigating human rights abuses.
The ISLP brief called on the Commission to proceed without delay to urge the Inter-American Court to act, recognizing that the regime “has no serious intention of respecting the Commission’s precautionary measures or recommendations.”