The IACHR Hearing: A Mechanism for the Judicialization of Ethnic Politics in Nicaragua

• In Event: Indigenous and Afrodescendant Peoples and the Inter-American Human Rights System

Abstract

In the last five years, representatives for the Rama Kriol Territory in Nicaragua have presented testimony on rights violations at hearings held by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on four separate occasions. The petitioners are often part of larger organizational coalitions and address topics as diverse as the demarcation of indigenous and Afrodescendant lands, state sexual violence against minors, and threats resulting from the development of infrastructure megaprojects in the territory. These frequent appeals to the IACHR have occurred even as the Nicaraguan state has instituted mechanisms for autonomous governance and titled nearly thirty percent of its national territory to indigenous and Afrodescendant communities from the Atlantic coast region. The Rama Kriol Territory has benefited from this process, receiving title to a large swath of coastal lands in 2010. Yet even in the context of recognition and expanding rights, territorial representatives increasingly turn to the IACHR to seek redress for a range of rights violations. This paper examines the role of the IACHR hearing in the judicialization of ethnic politics in Nicaragua. Specifically, I focus on why representatives of the Rama-Kriol Territory so frequently turn to IACHR hearings to air grievances, pressure the state, and articulate unsteady alliances with Nicaraguan human rights, environmental, and women’s organizations. I conclude by considering outcomes of the hearings and the degree to which coalitional judicial activism reflects real organizational ties between diverse grassroots activists and civil society organizations in Nicaragua.

Author

• Jennifer Goett, Michigan State University