Situation of human rights in Nicaragua: Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (A/HRC/49/23)

OHCHR's report on the human rights situation in Nicaragua from 1 January to 31 December 2021 finds that the Supreme Electoral Council dissolved the Conservative Party and annulled the legal personality of the Party of Democratic Restoration on 18 May, and annulled that of Ciudadanos por la Libertad on 6 August, only hours after a complaint by another political party, and that seven presidential pre-candidates were arbitrarily deprived of liberty between 2 June and 24 July, which de facto prevented them from standing. It records 39 arbitrary arrests between 28 May and 21 October, at least seven international journalists denied entry, government-owned broadcasters carrying only FSLN advertising and calling for an FSLN vote, Meta's removal on 1 November of a government-linked network of over 1,000 accounts with parallel closures by Twitter and YouTube, and that despite repeated OAS calls no impartial international observers were invited: the government instead announced on 5 November the arrival of over 220 international electoral companions, a category introduced by article 10 (9) of Electoral Law No. 1070 to replace electoral observers, with the president of the Council stating that companions would not have the role of impartial international observers. The report describes the National Assembly as having 92 members, where the CSE proclamation and IPU record 91 for the 2021-2027 term.