UN rights experts decry mass revocation of lawyer credentials in Nicaragua – JURIST
The UN Group of Experts on Human Rights in Nicaragua (GHREN) on Monday a convicted the government’s revocation of numerous attorneys’ and notaries’ credentials.
According to the testimonies of those affected, there was no notification, legal basis, nor official explanation for the revocation. Many did not know their licenses had been revoked until they came to court or tried to file legal documents.
GHREN warns that this action “effectively wiped out” a substantial part of the legal profession in Nicaragua, thereby removing citizens’ right to legal protection. In their statement, Reed Brody, a member of GHREN, described this incident as part of their ongoing concerns with the country’s justice system, saying:
The silent purge of the legal profession is one more nail in the coffin of the independence of the judiciary in Nicaragua: first they took the judges, now they are taking the lawyers. International standards are clear: no one can be barred from practicing law without a fair hearing before an independent body. Here there was no hearing, no independent body – just a delete key.
Brody has said there are “at least hundreds, if not thousands, of lawyers” affected by this latest crackdown on dissent.
Those affected are former justice officials and lawyers who lived in exile, former members of the decision Sandinista Partyand others that have no clear affiliation. Attacks like these have been a consistent finding of GHREN, as expert member Ariela Peralta says:
Lawyers have been among the victims of political persecution in Nicaragua since 2018. They have faced threats, harassment, detention and deportation. They have been systematically denied access to their clients – and now, to the practice of the profession itself.
Juan Diego Barberena, a lawyer and human rights defender who is exiled in Costa Rica, was among those recently stripped of his accreditation. In the last one interviewBarberena described the move as a “dictatorship…that wants to prevent lawyers, experts and academics from participating in the future of the country’s institutions. This is a means to exercise totalitarian control over the legal profession,” he said.
The expert report refers to an erosion of the legal profession starting in 2023, with the arbitrary and permanent. suspension of at least 25 lawyers. Some were former political prisoners and others were part of a group stripped of citizenship after being accused of being “traitors to the country”.
Furthermore, in October 2023, the police took over the Supreme Court of Justice, leading to a large number of judicial officials being forcibly expelled. The government strengthened its control over the judiciary through constitutional reforms in 2025, which completely removed its independence and invited criticism by human rights groups.
GHREN was created in March 2022 by Resolution 49/3followed by resolution 52/2 AND A/HRC/RES/58/18 both of which extended the group’s mandate for two-year periods. The UN Human Rights Council established a panel of three human rights experts to conduct an independent investigation into all alleged violations committed since April 2018. GHREN has releasing numerous reports on her findings.
