Outcome Report >> Nicaragua, Comment, 33rd Session, May 2019

The International Humanist and Ethical Union took note of the delegation’s statement that women’s rights and the fight against gender violence were government priorities. However, it highlighted that Nicaragua had rejected recommendations to address femicide and sexual and domestic violence against women and children, including repealing the 2017 legislative amendment to the Comprehensive Law on Violence against Women, which reduced the scope of femicide to the private sphere. Despite the high rate of teenage pregnancy and maternal mortality in Nicaragua, abortion remained banned in all circumstances, and many of those in need of an abortion are young girls, who suffered sexual violence and rape. It considered the absolute ban on abortion as an institutionalized violence against women and girls and a form of inhuman treatment and torture. It called on Nicaragua to decriminalise abortion and back up its commitment to reduce violence against women. [Para 933]