Derechos Humanos / Human Rights

As the crisis in Nicaragua reaches nearly a year, the World Movement remains heartened by actions taken by the international community to defend Nicaraguan citizens. Since protests broke out in April 2018, the World Movement has issued several DemocracyAlerts concerning the crisis in Nicaragua. To learn more about the past year’s events, read our Alerts on violence against peaceful protesters in April, targeted attacks against civil society leaders, and the recent shuttering of NGOs and independent media organizations. More recently:

• On December 28, 2018, the World Movement Steering Committee Chairperson and former United Nations (UN) Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura issued a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for concrete action towards the government of Nicaragua in defense of democracy and fundamental freedoms. In the letter, she reminds him: “The lives and dignity of thousands of people, as well as the defense of citizenship, civil society, and democratic institutions, not only of Nicaragua, but of the entire region, depend on this.” Read the full letter here.
• In late January 2019, World Movement Steering Committee member Ana Gomes led a European Parliament special mission to meet with Nicaraguan political prisoners, journalists, and civil society members. While there, she published interviews with political prisoners at La Esperanza women’s prison. She notes on Twitter, “[Are they] broken by being thrown in jail by the #Murillo-Ortega regime? NO! They are ever stronger, these brave women.” The videos are available in Spanish here.

Brussels.– On January 31st, Members of the European Parliament will have the chance to significantly enhance transparency in the European Union. This historic vote, if passed, would introduce an amendment to the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure that would require Parliamentarians in special positions to make their meetings with lobbyists public for the first time ever. An absolute majority of 376 votes is required for the rule to pass. With your help, we can put pressure on MEPs to adopt this critical amendment that would transform how transparency in the EU works!

It takes one minute of your time. We are providing you with an email template – simply choose your country and sign the email, and your call will be sent to all MEPs we are targeting in your country!

Write to your MEPs to vote YES for more transparency in the EU

Many of us have heard them before: “Urbi et Orbi”, the papal blessings imparted to the city of Rome and the world twice a year, on Easter and Christmas. A message from the Eternal City to the whole world. This year we – supporters of modern direct democracy across the globe – can truly relate to this vibe. At the Rome Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy this year, we started to draft a Magna Charta for an International League of Democracy Cities. A process, which underlines the growing importance of local and regional communities for the future of the planet, when it comes to critical issues like climate change, transportation, health, education – and last but not least, democracy.

70 years ago, on December 10, the then newly established United Nations gathered in Paris to adopt a very important document: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this global charter, all parties committed to a set of fundamental and basic human rights, including – in Art. 21.1. – the fundamental right to indirect and direct democracy. This historic agreement was made on the background of two devastating world wars and the Holocaust, the industrial attempt to extinguish all people of a certain faith. Since then the work to implement the Universal Declaration into every day practice has mainly been led by national leaders gathering in international organizations. But this has changed.

UNPACU PUBLICLY DENOUNCES THE CUBAN REGIME BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Madrid, November 21, 2018.

The Unión Patriótica de Cuba [Patriotic Union of Cuba] (UNPACU), together with a large group of eminent attorneys in international law specializing in proceedings before the International Criminal Court, led by the President of the International Criminal Lawyers Association (BPI-ICB-CAPI), Blas Jesús Imbroda, has launched a process to present in the coming months various accusations of the Cuban regime before said Court.

The axes of accusations will be crimes against humanity that the Court can judge, both for countries parties to the Court (signatories of the Rome Statute) and for those that are not, as is the case of Cuba. In Latin America there are only two countries that are not a party to the Criminal Court, Nicaragua and Cuba, and 28 states parties. At the international level, 121 states are party.

The success of any of the axes of accusation will result in the order of international detention for those members of the regime considered responsible from July 2002 until the date of the last crime subject to denunciation; i.e. at least until November 2018. This international arrest warrant would prevent any of the sentenced, with the certainty of being arrested, from stepping on the grounds of any country party to the International Criminal Court (121 states, 28 of them in the Americas).