IBAHRI condemns the mass revocation of lawyers’ licences in Nicaragua
On September 2 the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute condemned the suspension in recent weeks of the licences of around 2,000 lawyers and notaries, both inside Nicaragua and in exile. Those affected received no prior notice, no opportunity to be heard, and no published legal basis; many learned of it only when they tried to file documents or appear in court, or when they noticed changes in the Supreme Court’s electronic registry. In some cases clients were told the state had appointed new lawyers for them ex officio. The purge reaches beyond known government critics to lawyers in apolitical fields such as family law. IBAHRI invokes Principles 26 to 29 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which require fair proceedings before an impartial body, and characterises the measure as political control rather than regulation; the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua has called it a silent purge of the legal profession. Where a captured Supreme Court controls admission to practice, it can clear independent lawyers from the field without ever holding a hearing.