IACHR Grants Precautionary Measures in Favor of Regional YATAMA Legislator Brooklyn Rivera Bryan in Nicaragua

October 11, 2023

Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued Resolution 59/2023 on October 9, 2023, to grant precautionary measures in favor of regional legislator Brooklyn Rivera Bryan in Nicaragua, in the belief that he faces a serious, urgent risk of suffering irreparable harm to his rights.

According to the party who requested these precautionary measures, Rivera Bryan is a Miskitu indigenous person and the leader of the YATAMA (Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka, "Children of Mother Earth United") organization. On September 29, 2023, officers of the National Police violently stormed his home in Bilwi, in the Northern Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, without a search warrant or an arrest warrant. During the raid, Rivera Bryan was beaten up, handcuffed, and arrested, and his whereabouts have been unknown since then.

The State failed to provide information to prove that the risk factors that had been identified had been adequately mitigated.

After assessing the legal and factual allegations made in the request for these precautionary measures, the IACHR found that Brooklyn Rivera Bryan was at risk, considering that there had been no news about his condition or whereabouts since he was arrested by officers of the State on September 29, 2023, and since there were no available remedies that might enable access to information about his whereabouts. Consequently, in keeping with Article 25 of its Rules of Procedure, the IACHR asked the State of Nicaragua to take the following action:

1. Adopt any measures necessary to establish Brooklyn Rivera Bryan's whereabouts and condition, in order to protect his rights to life and personal integrity
2. Report on his current conditions of detention (particularly report on his place of detention and grant his lawyers and family access to him, as well as enabling any healthcare assistance he may require)
3. Report on any actions adopted to investigate the alleged events that gave rise to the adoption of these precautionary measures, in order to prevent such events from happening again in the future

The fact that these precautionary measures have been granted and their adoption by the State do not entail a prejudgment on a potential petition that may be filed before the inter-American system to allege violations of rights protected by the American Convention on Human Rights and other applicable instruments.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 245/23

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