A/HRC/RES/58/18 Expressing deep concern also over the continued persecution, criminalization and repression of members and leaders of the campesino movement, including through arbitrary detentions, torture, unfair trials, forced displacement and possible extrajudicial executions, as well as through ongoing harassment, surveillance and threats against campesinos and their families, which have effectively dismantled their efforts to organize and forced many into exile or hiding, Expressing grave concern at the continuing violations of the freedom of opinion and expression and the freedom to seek, receive and impart information, including for members of the press, including by the raiding and closure of the country’s main print newspaper, and the arbitrary arrests, threats to, violence against and harassment and forced exile of journalists and media workers involved in reporting that is critical of the Government, and the further restrictions to freedom of expression and of the press as a result of the Constitutional amendments, Condemning the alarming rise in violence against women and girls in Nicaragua and the authorities’ continued failure to combat sexual and gender-based violence, including by relying on mandatory mediation instead of prosecution, the lack of independence of the judiciary and of the Office of the Attorney General, judicial gender bias that disproportionately affects women, and by neglecting to hold perpetrators accountable, 1. Expresses grave concern at the continued deterioration of democracy, the dismantling of the rule of law and the separation of powers, and the grave situation of human rights in Nicaragua, in particular with regard to the enjoyment of civil and political rights, including the right to a nationality, continuing reports of human rights violations and abuses, the lack of accountability and independent, transparent and impartial investigations since April 2018, including with respect to the killing of at least 300 individuals, the persistent bans on public demonstrations and the disproportionate and lethal use of force and acts of intimidation and harassment by the police to repress peaceful protests, and acts of violence by armed groups, including against Indigenous Peoples and Afrodescendent communities in the regions of the Caribbean Coast, as well as continued reports of the increasing incidence of unlawful arrests and arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, expedited trials without due process, of harassment, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, gender-related killings, including femicides, and sexual and gender-based violence in detention and against those who visit detainees; 2. Condemns in the strongest terms the removal of the explicit recognition of the prohibition of torture from the Constitution of Nicaragua; 3. Expresses concern at the worsening restrictions on civic and democratic space and the repression of dissent in Nicaragua, which includes acts of intimidation, harassment and unlawful or arbitrary surveillance of journalists and other media workers, human rights defenders, including defenders who are women, Indigenous, Afrodescendent and environmental human rights defenders, community and religious leaders, peasants and members of the campesino movement, academics and students, artists and cultural workers, victims of human rights violations and abuses and their family members, and individuals expressing views that are critical of the Government of Nicaragua, and urges the Government to publicly condemn and ensure accountability for any attacks or acts of intimidation or harassment, and sexual and gender-based violence, and to take measures to ensure a safe and enabling environment, both online and offline, for the above-mentioned persons to carry out their work freely and without fear of persecution or reprisal; 4. Expresses profound concern at the dramatic increase in the arbitrary cancellation of legal registration of, and the unduly restrictive administrative and financial constraints imposed on, civil society and religious organizations, universities and independent media outlets, including those working with Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendants, women, children and adolescents, and other groups in vulnerable situations, and the impact such closures have on independent human rights monitoring and the enjoyment of human rights, online and offline, especially the rights to freedom of opinion, of expression, of association and of peaceful assembly, to privacy and to education, as set out in articles 12, 19, 20 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articles 17, 19 and 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 13 of the 5