Photo Credit: Flickr user svengaarn
In May, the UN Committee against Torture called for Nicaragua to reconsider its absolute ban on abortion. The Committee ruled that the ban, which has been in effect since 2006, infringed on the rights of women and girls by prohibiting abortion in cases in which pregnancy threatened the mother’s life as well as in cases of rape. Moreover, as Amnesty International argues, the ban on abortion violates the right of women not to be subject to “torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” The UN Committee against torture is not the first UN body to admonish Nicaragua for this law; as of today, the UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the UN Committee on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women have all rebuked Nicaragua for its blanket abortion law and have reminded the country of its obligation to uphold human rights.
The persistence of this particular violation of women’s rights should come as no surprise. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's authoritarian tendencies have presented themselves with increasing frequency since the Contra War of the 1980s. In previous posts, we explored the president’s most recent authoritarian behavior, citing Ortega’s vigorous impingements on press freedom, flagrant manipulation of electoral laws, and wanton disregard for the democratic electoral process. On June 11, the Millennium Challenge Corporation directly punished Nicaragua for its deplorable governance trend by canceling the final $60 million of a $175 million aid agreement. In addition, his malign approach to women's rights is nothing new. While Ortega once supported abortion, he displayed his preference for political expediency by changing his position to ally himself with the Catholic Church during the run up to the 2006 presidential election. Most notorious, however, is Ortega's possible involvement in a sexual abuse scandal involving his stepdaughter. While his stepdaughter ultimately withdrew her case from consideration, she has not withdrawn her accusations. In addition to committing the above transgressions, Ortega has more recently trampled on women's rights by ignoring requests to rescind the absolute ban on abortion, aggressively harassing feminist activists, and largely turning a deaf ear to issues such as discrimination.
The fact that the country’s respect for women’s rights has begun to backslide is particularly disheartening considering the lamentable state of gender equality even before Ortega assumed the presidency in 2007. As the Countries at the Crossroads Report on Nicaragua noted, as of 2006 women were inadequately protected against sexual abuse and were not supported by any notable state commitment to reverse rampant discrimination. In cases of abuse, women were frequently referred to civil society organizations for further help after lodging complaints with the national police. Although constitutional safeguards exist, high levels of both discrimination and harassment against women in the workplace have persisted since this time. More recently, the State Department’s 2008 Human Rights Report on Nicaragua stated that while laws criminalizing rape and domestic violence exist, the laws against domestic violence were selectively enforced. Both the country’s Special Prosecutor for Women and the national police reported that violence against women increased in 2008. As is the case in other Latin American countries, a strong “machista” culture is firmly ingrained in Nicaraguan society, which fuels and exacerbates the aforementioned problems.
One of the most alarming examples of the government’s deficient attitude towards women’s rights is its belligerent conduct towards women’s rights organizations. Since 2006, the government has aggressively attacked women’s rights advocates. As Human Rights Watch notes, women’s rights organizations protesting the ban on abortion have been investigated and intimidated by the government, which ramped up its campaign against these organizations in 2008. Last year, 9 women’s rights advocates were criminally investigated, while the offices of the organizations they represented were raided due to questionable allegations regarding funding sources. Reporters without Borders also claimed that Sofia Montenegro, the director of the Autonomous Women’s Movement, had been the victim of a government smear campaign. Despite the looming threat of government persecution, women’s organizations have remained dedicated to their quest to revoke the law. In late May of this year, 500 women protested the abortion law outside of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court.
The excessive harassment of feminist activists and NGOs is part of a larger government campaign against freedom of association. Due to the fact that Nicaraguan women often rely on NGO support in cases of domestic abuse and rape, the government’s quest to suppress the activities of these organizations has especially regrettable consequences.
Ortega’s war against feminist organizations provides additional evidence that the Sandinista revolution’s dedication to social change is extremely subordinate to his desire to accrue and maintain power. On a superficial level, the Sandinista government has in some ways upheld its commitment to the empowerment of women by launching healthcare, anti-poverty, and literacy programs. A recent article lauded the strides made by the Nicaraguan government to address the country’s pronounced gender inequality through its literacy campaign. Nicaraguan women, who make up somewhere between 15 and 52 percent of the country’s illiterate population, have garnered notable benefits from this program. However, as the article notes, seemingly positive government policies such as this one are being carried out against a backdrop of increased violence against Nicaraguan women and could even be considered a veil for the government’s abusive actions.
Due to the restrictive, oppressive climate being generated by the Ortega regime, any sustained progress on women’s rights seems highly unlikely at this time. Ortega has firmly locked Nicaragua in a downward spiral on governance matters. As Ortega continues to wage war against his adversaries, feminist activists and women’s rights organizations will number among his victims, and the comprehensive change Nicaragua needs will remain far from realization.
