UN expert warns of escalation of attacks against legal profession in Nicaragua after 2000 lawyers were struck off Supreme Court register

GENEVA – Two thousand lawyers in Nicaragua were removed from the official Supreme Court of Justice register without prior notice, allegedly because they were not aligned with the government of Co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, a UN expert said today.

“These removals strike at the heart of the right to a fair trial,” said Margaret Satterthwiate, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. “The international community must take action to protect independent spaces for organisation, expression and social participation, which the Nicaraguan authorities have tried to shut down since 2018.”

The attorneys in question were removed from the professional registry without prior notice, without facing individualised disciplinary or administrative proceedings that would justify the measure, and without an effective opportunity to challenge said measure before an independent authority. The consequences of not appearing the registry include the inability to file briefs, represent clients, and perform notarial acts.

“The legal profession has been the target of particular harassment in Nicaragua. Lawyers who have represented individuals deprived of their liberty for political reasons; defended human rights; or denounced state abuses are facing restrictions on their professional practice, surveillance, harassment, threats, forced exile, and now the cancellation of their professional registrations and other retaliatory measures,” Satterthwaite said.

The Special Rapporteur said she was concerned by the chilling message sent in the National Council for Judicial Administration and Careers 2026 Circular instructing judges and judicial bodies to verify, as a mandatory requirement before providing any service to legal professionals, whether they were registered in the judiciary’s system. In cases where a lawyer was not listed in that register, authorities were now required to refer them to the Directorate for the Regulation, Supervision and Control of Lawyers and Notaries of the Supreme Court of Justice to regularise their status.

“We cannot forget that in 2023, constitutional reforms relating to the revocation of Nicaraguan nationality and the use of the disciplinary system and the regulatory powers of the Supreme Court of Justice to arbitrarily restrict the practice of law and notarial services, particularly with regard to professionals considered critical of the government came into force, and 26 lawyers were disbarred after being stripped of their nationality.”

“Nicaragua must cease these attacks against the legal profession and the right to a fair trial immediately,” Satterthwaite said.

The Special Rapporteur has written to Nicaragua with these concerns.