Human Rights Council President appoints Ariela Peralta Distefano to serve as member of Nicaragua experts group

GENEVA (27 June 2023) – The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Václav Bálek (Czechia), has appointed Ariela Peralta Distefano of Uruguay as a member of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua.

Peralta’s appointment follows the resignation of Alexandro Álvarez from the Group of Human Rights Experts, which was created by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022.

Peralta has more than 33 years of experience in international humanitarian law and human rights law. She is currently working on the European Commission program on support for human rights and democracy in Honduras. She recently served as a legal adviser to the President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

From 2020-2022, she served as the Executive Secretary of the Institute for Public Policy on Human Rights of the Southern Common Market technical assistance agency. Peralta was a member of the first Board of Directors of the National Human Rights Institution and Ombudsman of Uruguay from 2012-2017, serving as its president from 2016-2017.

As a lawyer in Uruguay, Peralta has represented vulnerable groups such as persons deprived of liberty, former political prisoners and juvenile offenders. She has also represented victims of violence in times of peace and armed conflict from different countries, including women who have suffered forced sterilization, rape and other forms of sexual violence, kidnapped children and children born in captivity during regimes of oppression and civil wars, displaced populations and children arbitrarily detained.

The three-person Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua was created by the UN Human Rights Council on 31 March 2022 with a mandate to conduct thorough and independent investigations into all alleged human rights violations and abuses committed in Nicaragua since April 2018. The Experts are also mandated to establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the alleged violations and abuses and to make recommendations with a view to improving the situation of human rights, to provide guidance on access to justice and accountability, as appropriate, and to ensure a victim-centred approach.

On 3 April 2023, the Council renewed the mandate of the Group for a further period of two year.

The Group is scheduled to present an oral update to the Human Rights Council during its 54th regular session in September-October 2023 and deliver its next report to the Council during its 55th regular session in February-March 2024.

ENDS

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