Nicaragua withdraws from Migration and Labour Organizations amid human rights criticism

Nicaragua said Friday that it will quit the International Organization for Migration and the International Labour Organization, expanding its withdrawal from multilateral organisations in response to criticism of its human rights record.

The two organisations “do not fulfil the mission for which they were created,” according to Rosario Murillo, who co-governs alongside her husband, President Daniel Ortega.

“We reiterate our irrevocable, firm position of repudiation of all insults, offenses, falsehoods, aggressions, the double standard of colonialist politics that governs the actions” of these bodies, the 73-year-old added.

The declaration comes a day after Ortega’s administration announced its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council, after experts selected by the organisation accused Nicaragua of rampant repression.

It had earlier stated that it will leave the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in reaction to a report indicating rising famine in the Central American country.

Murillo said the ILO had acted in a “politicized manner, lending itself to destabilization and interventionist maneuvers” when evaluating complaints from employers and employees of violations of labor rights.

The government accused the IOM of “false, malicious and irresponsible information” about Nicaragua in an annual report on migration.

Ortega, 79, has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices, tightening control over all sectors of the state with the support of Murillo in what critics describe as a nepotistic dictatorship.

Ortega first served as president from 1985 to 1990 as a former guerrilla hero and returned to power in 2007.

Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of opponents, real and perceived, since then.

It has also shut down more than 5,000 non-governmental organizations since 2018 mass protests in which the United Nations estimates more than 300 people died.