UPR Sexual Rights Database

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 61) JS9 recalled that abortion of all forms, including therapeutic abortion, remained a criminal offence in spite of recommendations received from five treaty bodies and eight recommendations accepted in the first universal periodic review of Nicaragua. The percentage of indirect obstetric deaths has increased.

National Report:
Para 63) Nicaragua adopted and is currently implementing a public policy on strengthening Nicaraguan families and preventing violence in order to promote, protect and restore the human rights of families, women, children and adolescents and to guarantee them a life free from violence.
Para 72) The Nicaraguan judiciary has made access to justice a priority, particularly access to justice for women, children and adolescents, and has enlarged and strengthened 75 special courts dealing with violence, families and children, the judicial facilitators system, and the women’s and children’s clinics and DNA laboratories managed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Para 81) Significant progress was made on the legislative front through the adoption of Act No. 870 (the Family Code), which strengthened special protection measures for women victims of violence and introduced an obligation to report domestic violence.
Para 82) The proper application of Act No. 779 and its amendments is ensured through the training of judicial officials, the consideration of gender perspectives at all stages of criminal procedure, criminal sentence analysis, the application of procedural protocols and institution-building.
Para 84) A total of 69,605 criminal cases were heard and 43,587 were resolved, which represents 62 per cent of the total. The courts have interdisciplinary teams of psychologists and social workers in place to support women victims of violence. A total of 65 sentences for femicide have been handed down, all of which resulted from convictions, which demonstrates that there is no impunity.
Para 85) The Judicial Observatory for Gender-based Violence of the Supreme Court of Justice was strengthened in order to follow up on and monitor the application of precautionary and protective measures, judicial decisions and judicial statistics relating to the offences established in Act No. 779. Para 86) Institutional, inter-institutional and community coordination and training activities were carried out to prevent and address violence against women and to monitor protection measures.
Para 87) Microcredit was awarded to 1,553 women at risk, or victims, of violence, fostering their personal growth and that of their businesses and contributing to their full recovery. Craft workshops were organized for indigenous craftswomen from the North Caribbean Coast, who were provided with tuno, timber-yielding and fruit-tree seedlings.

UN Compilation:
Para 71) ECLAC also noted that in the 2014 regulations implementing Act No. 779 of 2012, on violence against women and amendments to Act No. 641 (the Criminal Code), the definition of femicide had been restricted to the area of “interpersonal relationships between partners”, in contrast to the broad definition originally provided by Act No. 779.
Para 72) In its annual report 2017, UNICEF noted that violence-related challenges continued: according to the Legal Medicine Institute, 82 per cent of the victims of violence and sexual abuse were girls.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 75) IPAS reported that in 2012–2017 there had been 365 femicides, that the country had no policy on reparation and support for victims of femicide and that the Special Police Units for Women and Children, which had provided specialized support, had been dismantled. JS4 added that the units’ functions had been reassigned to Judicial Assistance and their staff redeployed in the various police units, so that they no longer received specialized support.
Para 76) JS7 noted that Nicaragua had included the crime of femicide in its legislation, defining it as a separate offence under Act No. 779. However, the Act had been weakened through a number of amendments and by the implementation of regulations that ran counter to the very purpose of the law. JS4 and ILLS noted that Act No. 779 violated the right to protection by restricting violence to that occurring within the family and taking no account of the school or community contexts. JS15 expressed similar concerns.

UN Compilation:
Para 2) The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) noted that Nicaragua had not ratified the OP-CEDAW …

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 2) Several organizations indicated that Nicaragua had still not ratified the … the OP-CEDAW, …

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 64) IPAS stated that Nicaragua had become one of six countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to fully criminalize abortion, and that it had upheld the complete criminalization of abortion for more than eleven years, ignoring the recommendations of various treaty bodies and the universal periodic review. The Centro de Información y Servicios de Asesoría en Salud (Health Information and Advisory Services Centre) (CISAS) reported that under the Criminal Code women, adolescents and girls who obtained abortions were liable to one to four years’ imprisonment. CISAS added that because of the ban on abortion, such procedures were carried out in secret.

National Report:
Para 67) Combating violence against women constitutes a State policy, which includes an action plan with three objectives: prevention, protection and care for victims. Within this framework, the Comprehensive Act against Violence towards Women (Act No. 779) and the reform of the Criminal Code (Act No. 641) were adopted and entered into force in 2012, classifying for the first time femicide and other forms of violence against women as an offence. This same Act created the national inter-institutional commission to combat violence against women, children and adolescents, composed of 17 state institutions, with departmental and municipal branches. At executive level, the Inter-institutional Commission on Gender was established and the planning system for the national general budget was put into operation with a gender perspective.

Para 68) As part of access to justice and legal protection, the comprehensive care model has been established and 61 police units for women and children are in operation. In 2013, 99 further units were built to achieve 100 per cent coverage of the country's police network. The special criminal division in the Managua court of appeal was established, setting up specialized courts for which the appropriate judges and magistrates were appointed.