OAS To Create “Voluntary” Group to Monitor Nicaragua
Member states will continue to follow up on the situation in Nicaragua, but “without a cloak of officialdom,” affirms an expert in international relations.
HAVANA TIMES – Four months after Nicaragua ceased being a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), the organization’s Permanent Council will discuss a new draft resolution regarding the country. Among other things, the proposed resolution concludes the mandate of the Work Group on Nicaragua, replacing it with “a voluntary group” to assist the body in its efforts to closely monitor the situation in this Central American country.
The draft resolution known as “Follow-up on the situation in Nicaragua” was included in the agenda for the April 3rd regular session of the Permanent Council. The initiative came at the request of Canada, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, the United States, Peru and Uruguay.
The first point of business for the Permanent Council will be to terminate the “mandate of Resolution 1109 (2175/18) approved in August 2018, that created the Work Group for Nicaragua.” The creation of the Work Group was in response to concern over the brutal repression exercised by the Ortega regime against citizens participating in the massive protests of that period.
Given the need to dissolve the Work Group, the draft resolution proposed the creation of “a voluntary group, open to the participation of all member states, to assist the Permanent Council in their efforts to give special attention to the situation in Nicaragua without generating costs to the Organization’s budget.” It adds that the inputs this group may eventually contribute would be submitted to the Permanent Council for consideration.
Group will lack “any cloak of officialdom”
An expert in international relations who asked to remain anonymous told Confidencial that the volunteer group may be made up of the same member states that comprised the Work Group on Nicaragua, plus other member nations with interest in continuing to monitor the socio-political crisis in the country.
“In practice, not a lot of difference may be seen, but formally there is a great difference,” the expert warned. “This new group will be working on a volunteer basis, with no cloak of officialdom. When they feel the need to report something to the Permanent Council, they’ll do so as a voluntary group or as Member States, and not as a Work Group created with that objective,” he noted.
Such a situation “represents a drop in the value of what they can formally contribute, although they hope that in practice there’s not a lot of difference,” the specialist added.
Nicaragua’s membership in the OAS was terminated as of November 19, 2023, upon completion of the mandatory two years since the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo denounced the organization’s Basic Charter and announced their intention to withdraw. The dictatorship’s arguments were based on the regional organization’s supposed “continual interventionist attitudes,” an accusation related to the OAS’ resolutions condemning the outrages perpetrated by the regime against the Nicaraguan population.
Why dissolve the Work Group?
The international relations expert also observed that the timing of the announcement that the Work Group would be dissolved suggests “that something must have triggered it.”
“Unfortunately, the OAS remains an inter-governmental organism that’s subject to the will of the majority of its Member States. It could well be that one or more member nations questioned the fact that the OAS would continue maintaining a Work Group for Nicaragua, since Nicaragua is no longer a Member State,” he continued.
The draft resolution doesn’t mention budgetary concerns, but the expert believes this couldn’t have been the determining factor, given that the Work Group didn’t incur any large expenses, since the Ortega-Murillo regime never allowed them entry into Nicaragua.
In the August 2018 resolution that created this Work Group, there’s no time limit nor any requirement to renew its mandate. Nonetheless, it was created under Rule 12 of the Permanent Council’s Rules of Procedure, which indicates that such groups will always be temporary,” the source elaborated.
IACHR will continue documenting the situation
The draft resolution reiterates that Nicaragua’s denunciation of the OAS Charter doesn’t excuse them from the duty “to fulfill the rest of their international commitments, especially those related to the promotion and protection of human rights.” Given this, it affirms that the OAS will continue paying attention to the country’s crisis, their democratic rupture, and the deterioration of the human rights situation in the country.
“Within the framework of Resolution AG/RES 3006 (LIII-)/23), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will be asked to continue supplying the Permanent Council with periodic reports on the situation in Nicaragua, with the objective of facilitating the consideration of all additional actions necessary to contribute to the effective exercise of representative democracy, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights in the country,” the text reads.
In addition, it repeats its call on the Member States, “to do everything possible to encourage the authorities in Nicaragua to begin a dialogue at the highest level, including the adoption of actions in accordance with the Charter of the Organization of American States, aimed at [Nicaragua’s] reincorporation as a member of the organization.”