(CNN) Dozens of people died last week in Nicaragua as a result of anti-government protests, human rights groups there told CNN Friday -- in contrast to the government's official death toll, which stands at 10.

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, based in the capital city of Managua, reported 42 deaths on Sunday. On Saturday, the group had reported 43 people died but revised the death toll, saying they'd mistakenly included a person who was in critical condition.

The Permanent Commission on Human Rights said 58 people died. The government reported its latest death toll April 20.

The deaths came amid the largest street protests the country has seen since the civil war ended in 1990. Protesters clashed with security forces, and different groups among the demonstrators also clashed with each other.

Demonstrators in Managua threw rocks and set fires as police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Several television stations were taken off the air as the government tried to stem the unrest.

Read More</s>The death toll from violent anti-government protests in Nicaragua last week is now up to 38, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights told CNN Friday. The government reports a death toll of 10.

The deaths came amid the largest street protests the country has seen since the civil war ended in 1990. Protesters clashed with security forces, and different groups among the demonstrators also clashed with each other.

The unrest was spurred by the implementation of a controversial pension reform resolution intended to halt the growing deficit in the country's social security system.

Citizens took to the streets to protest the changes, which amounted to increased contributions into the social security system by workers and employers and the reduction of the pensions of retired workers.</s>Dozens of people died last week in Nicaragua as a result of anti-government protests, human rights groups there told CNN Friday — in contrast to the government’s official death toll, which stands at 10.

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, based in the capital city of Managua, reported 42 deaths. The Permanent Commission on Human Rights said 58 people died. The government reported its latest death toll April 20.

The deaths came amid the largest street protests the country has seen since the civil war ended in 1990. Protesters clashed with security forces, and different groups among the demonstrators also clashed with each other.

Demonstrators in Managua threw rocks and set fires as police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Several television stations were taken off the air as the government tried to stem the unrest.

Nicaraguan Attorney General Inés Miranda on Thursday announced an investigation into the deaths.

“A responsible and formal investigation was started regarding the following acts: the loss of life of students, police and civilians; the injuries sustained by students, police and civilians; looting and property damage, both public and private,” Miranda told reporters.

A journalist who was covering the protest was among those killed, state media outlet El 19 Digital reported.

The unrest, mostly led by students, started when President Daniel Ortega tried to change the country’s social security system. He implemented a controversial pension reform resolution intended to halt the growing deficit. The changes increased contributions by workers and employers and reduced retired workers’ pensions.

Ortega revoked the resolution Sunday, putting an end to violent clashes. Peaceful protests continue in Nicaragua, with demonstrators now calling for Ortega’s resignation.

The Nicaraguan government has been accused of using excessive force against protesters and “arbitrarily (shutting) down media outlets covering the recent protests,” a human rights organization says.

“Human Rights Watch received credible accounts that suggest that police officers used excessive force to shut down demonstrations in several places across the country and that pro-government groups attacked peaceful protesters,” the group said in a statement.

The US State Department and the United Nations have condemned violence against protesters, whom the vice president compared with “vampires” who “feed off blood … (to) achieve advances in their political agenda.” Both institutions called for a peaceful resolution.

Nicaragua “needs to comply with their international obligations to guarantee that people are able to freely express their rights of freedom of expression and freedom to peacefully assemble,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Liz Throssell said in a statement.

The US State Department issued a statement Monday ordering the departure of US government employees and their families. The department also urged travelers to reconsider travel plans to Nicaragua.

Ortega came to power as part of the Sandinista rebels who overthrew the Somoza dynasty in 1979. He fought against the US-backed contras during the 1980s and has remained a key ally to Venezuela.

He was first elected president in 1985, then ran unsuccessfully in 1990, 1996 and 2001. He was elected again in 2006, 2011 and 2016.

In the last presidential election, Ortega was elected in a landslide victory, with his wife as vice president. Critics have accused the couple of skirting laws while building a political dynasty.

Nicaragua’s constitution bars presidents from being re-elected and also bars candidates who are relatives of the sitting president from running.

In 2014, Ortega used his power to pressure lawmakers to do away with term limits.</s>UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zied Raad Al Hussien has said the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is seen as not independent by the human rights community in Geneva.In an interview he gave to the state broadcaster EBC, Al Hussein said “Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is not as yet what is called Paris Principle-compliant and not up to the status. Therefore, it is seen as not independent by the human rights community in Geneva.”

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says it is working to ensure that constitutional human rights and fundamental freedoms are well protected through human rights advocacy; counseling; monitoring; conducting research into the country’s human rights situation; investigating into and addressing human rights violations, as well as paying particular attention to vulnerable groups.

The commission has been investigating a number of suspected human rights violations in the country, and presented its findings to the national parliament, including the clashes between security forces and protesters over the past two and half years.

“We have often been sent the report and investigations, but we can see how others in Ethiopia feel about the reports which are not quite independent enough and quiet fair enough, because the human rights commission does not have the status it should have.” Al Hussien said in the interview.

Al Hussien added that it is actually the people of Ethiopia who will make the decision, and convey to the human rights community, whether they believe the commission is truly independent.

“At the moment there is a suspicion that the reports are not from a fully-independent commission,” he declared.

The UN rights commissioner welcomed the release of a large number of people, including bloggers, political opponents and others who had been detained in relation to their participation in protests and their criticism of the Ethiopian government.</s>The death toll in protests against the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega has risen to 42, while it has been confirmed that many young people feel forced to move away from their homes, the Nicaraguan Center of Human Rights (CENIDH) reported Saturday.

"We have confirmed 42 dead and have not yet determined the status of three others," CENIDH member Meyling Sierra told EFE.

Though other defenders of human rights have reported up to 63 deaths, based on official and non-official lists, CENIDH figures are more conservative since they include none whose bodies have not been identified by their families or otherwise verified.

CENIDH warns, however that even its own number of 48 has been made more uncertain due to the "forced relocation," considered a grave violation of human rights, since those who feel they are in danger must leave the city or even the country.

"There is a forced relocation, above all of young people who took part in the demonstration - they're afraid of reprisals and won't risk filing a complaint," Sierra said.

The CENIDH member said that even the families of those young people have been forced into hiding far from their homes.

The crisis Nicaragua is going through has lasted 11 days, during which time Ortega has witnessed a massive reaction against his government, particularly after the ruling party's shock troopers, directed by the Sandinista Youth and the National Police, used violence to repress the protesters.

Nicaraguans demand Ortega's resignation and that of his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, considering them repressive and corrupt violators of human rights, civil rights and the freedom of the people.

Though the possibility exists of a dialogue between the government and the private sector to overcome the crisis, with the mediation of the Catholic Church, the people do not feel identified with the process.

The Nicaraguan clergy this Saturday called for a "pilgrimage for the love of Nicaragua," at which thousands of people would ask for Ortega's resignation from the presidency.</s>The Nicaraguan government appears to have engaged in serious abuses against protesters and arbitrarily shut down media outlets covering the recent protests. Organization of American States (OAS) member countries should urge President Daniel Ortega’s government to allow the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR), the main rights body in the Americas, to visit the country and investigate the allegations of abuse.

(New York) – The government appears to have engaged in serious abuses against protesters and arbitrarily shut down media outlets covering the recent protests, Human Rights Watch said today. Organization of American States (OAS) member countries should urge President Daniel Ortega’s government to allow the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR), the main rights body in the Americas, to visit the country and investigate the allegations of abuse.

Ortega announced changes in the country’s pension system on April 18, 2018, igniting demonstrations across the country that have evolved into a larger outpouring of anger against his 11-year administration. Human Rights Watch received credible accounts that suggest that police officers used excessive force to shut down demonstrations in several places across the country and that pro-government groups attacked peaceful protesters. The Nicaraguan Red Cross told Human Rights Watch that between April 18 and 25, it assisted 435 people injured during the protests, including 242 who were hospitalized. Nicaraguan newspapers and local rights groups reported that at least 26 people died, including one journalist. Authorities said that two police officers died. Other estimates from a local rights group point to up to 63 people dead since April 18.

“Protesters who engage in violence should expect to be held to account, but so too should any police officer who uses excessive force,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “There is no excuse for taking media outlets covering the protests off the air or allowing pro-government groups to assault journalists and protesters.”

Between April 20 and April 25, Human Rights Watch interviewed 22 people by telephone, including members of nongovernmental groups, journalists, student protesters, clergy, a member of a lawyers’ association, and a Nicaraguan Red Cross representative.

Witnesses and victims said that riot police officers fired rubber bullets and teargas at protesters who were demonstrating peacefully on the streets, as well as in front of universities and churches. They also said that pro-government groups violently dispersed peaceful protests by punching and kicking them and using blunt instruments to beat demonstrators and journalists covering the protests.

Roberto Rizo Valdivia, an engineering student, told Human Rights Watch from his hospital bed that on April 19, a riot police officer shot him in the face with a rubber bullet, causing him to lose his left eye. He said that he and his fellow students had been protesting peacefully in front of the National Engineering University (UNI) in Managua but ran into the campus when the police appeared and fired teargas at them. The police chased the students and were joined by riot police, who Valdivia said fired rubber bullets and teargas at the students inside the campus. The students responded by throwing rocks.

On April 19, four TV news channels were taken off the air, according to multiple media accounts and two station directors interviewed by Human Rights Watch. The director of one station, 100% Noticias, said that the state telecommunications regulator had told him to stop covering the protests or “face the consequences,” and that the cable company subsequently informed him that the regulator had ordered it to stop broadcasting the channel. He said that he and three other members of his staff received anonymous calls threatening to set the station’s office on fire. The three other channels were back on the air after six hours, but 100% Noticias was not able to resume broadcasting until April 24, the outlet reported.

On April 23, two news outlets – La Prensa and Confidencial – alleged they had experienced a “cyber-attack.” La Prensa’s website slowed down, the newspaper’s IT manager said in an article it published. Confidencial’s website was offline from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Carlos Fernando Chamorro, chief press officer, said in a broadcast that night, calling it an attack by “the enemies of the free press.” Both outlets said that they believe the attack was an attempt to silence their coverage of protests.

Four journalists told Human Rights Watch that pro-government groups assaulted them while they were reporting on the protests, while local newspapers reported seven more cases. An Associated Press photographer, Alfredo Zúñiga, said that on April 18, a mob of men wearing identical T-shirts with pro-government slogans assaulted him and stole his camera as he covered a protest in Managua.

One man used a motorcycle helmet to bash Zúñiga in the face, he said, while another man hit him on the head with a steel pipe. He told Human Rights Watch the blow caused a wound that required eight stitches. When the attackers left, Zúñiga approached two police officers that had witnessed the attack from a few meters away. “One of them shrugged and the other one told me, ‘You shouldn’t have been here,’” Zúñiga said.

Human Rights Watch also received credible allegations that in some cases detained protesters were abused. Anielka Hernández, 25, told Human Rights Watch that police detained her at about 2 p.m. on April 20 as protesters began dispersing after a demonstration in the Managua suburb of Ticuantepe. Hernández said that she was put in the back of the police truck, and that a female police officer knelt on her chest. She protested she could not breathe and in response, she said, the officer put her knee on Hernández’s throat and slapped her face.

Demonstrators take part in a vigil on April 26, 2018, in Managua, Nicaragua, to pay tribute to the journalist Ángel Gahona, who died on April 21 while he reported on the protests in the city of Bluefields. © 2018 Alfredo Zúñiga /AP

Hernández said she was taken to a police station, where three female officers forced her to strip naked and squat five times in front of them, while threatening to beat her. She was then allowed to dress, held for five hours, and then released.

On April 23, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called on the Nicaraguan government to protect “the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.” The next day, a spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights expressed concern that several of the deaths recorded “may amount to unlawful killings” and called for an end to “the attacks on journalists and media organizations.”

In a joint statement published on April 22, the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru – all OAS members – called on Nicaraguan security forces to “avoid the excessive use of force” and expressed their “solidarity” with the victims.

On April 24, IACHR “condemn(ed)” protest-related deaths, raised concerns about attacks on media, and said that it would request Nicaragua’s consent to carry out a working visit to the country.

“Leaders in the region did the right thing by expressing their solidarity with the victims in Nicaragua, but they can and should do much more,” Vivanco said. “OAS member states should promptly convene a meeting in the Permanent Council to press President Ortega to allow the IACHR to visit the country with the government’s full cooperation.”</s>A non-governmental rights group in Nicaragua says it has confirmed that 63 people died during days of protests over social security changes that convulsed the country last week.

The Permanent Commission on Human Rights adds that at least 15 other people are missing. Director Marcos Carmona accused authorities Thursday of "a massacre" against student protesters and the Nicaraguan people.

The government did not immediately confirm, deny or otherwise comment on Thursday's report. Its most recent official death toll of 12 was announced Monday.

The rights group said it has also counted over 160 people wounded by gunfire, including nine who lost an eye and two who were left paralyzed.

President Daniel Ortega's government has scrapped the overhaul that sparked the protests and agreed to talks with different sectors of society.</s>A non-governmental rights group in Nicaragua says it has confirmed that 63 people died during days of protests over social security changes that convulsed the country last week, AP reported.

The Permanent Commission on Human Rights adds that at least 15 other people are missing. Director Marcos Carmona accused authorities Thursday of "a massacre" against student protesters and the Nicaraguan people.

The government did not immediately confirm, deny or otherwise comment on Thursday's report. Its most recent official death toll of 12 was announced Monday.</s>MANAGUA (AFP) - A week of brutally repressed anti-government protests in Nicaragua has killed at least 34 people, a leading rights group in the country said on Wednesday (April 25).

The Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (CENIDH) said it revised upwards its previous figure of 27 after finding more bodies in Managua’s state morgue of people previously reported missing, and also adding people who succumbed in hospitals to wounds sustained in the protests.

President Daniel Ortega’s government has not put out an official death toll since Friday, when it counted 10 deaths.

The protests were triggered by pension reforms that Ortega ended up withdrawing amid mounting condemnation of the harsh police tactics against the demonstrators.

Other grievances have also surfaced, notably resentment at the aloof and authoritarian style of Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, who is his vice president.

The unrest was the worst Ortega has faced in the past 11 years of his current stretch in power.

A mass march in Managua on Monday brought together tens of thousands of ordinary Nicaraguans, many of them calling for him to step down.

By early on Wednesday, the protests appeared to subside after Ortega made a series of concessions, including freeing dozens of arrested protesters, lifting curbs on independent media and calling for dialogue.

Makeshift road blocks had been cleared and traffic in the capital was returning to normal. There was no more of the looting and panic buying that had characterized the worst of the unrest over the weekend.

Schools were also reopening, after the government had ordered them closed Thursday as the street violence spread to towns and cities across the country.

But some Nicaraguans adopted a wait-and-see attitude over whether tensions were dissipating or merely in a lull.

“We are going to see how long this calm lasts,” said Managua taxi driver Alan Saavedra.

“I’m not sending my daughter to class because I still don’t see it as stable,” he said.

The capital’s archbishop, Leopoldo Brenes, has put himself forward as a mediator in talks called by Ortega.

The head of the country’s powerful employers’ union COSEP, Jose Aguerri, told AFP that conditions were coming together for dialogue to take place.

“We had said that the conditions for us to sit down were that there must be freedom of expression, freedom to gather together, the freeing of detainees....This has happened. Now we are waiting for the Episcopal Conference (the bishops) to make the decision” to start talks, he said.

COSEP had abandoned a longstanding alliance with Ortega when public anger erupted over the deadly force used by his security forces and government-linked groups against protesters.

Winning back the business leaders’ support is seen as key for Ortega to restore his authority.

Any talks with them are expected to return to the controversial issue of pension reform that triggered the wave of violence.

The Nicaraguan Social Security Institute is on track to go broke within a year or two on its current trajectory.

The abandoned reforms had sought to increase employee and employer contributions while cutting benefits to cap a deficit for the agency that has ballooned to US$76 million.

But that issue is now just one part of a panoply of public grievances that have led even former supporters to reject Ortega, a one-time Sandinista guerrilla who has ruled over the country for 22 of the past 39 years.

“The people are tired of being repressed, of being intimidated,” said Eliza Rodriguez, a resident of Leon, a Sandinista bastion northwest of the capital.

Carlos Gutierrez, a 26-year-old who watched a university building be torched in the town during the unrest, added: “We need total change. More freedom. More official support for the people, and no more authorities hurting the people.”</s>'It's A Very Different World Now,' Says Outgoing Human Rights Commissioner

In the last few years, some European countries have refused to take in refugees, prejudiced views have entered the mainstream, and leaders demonize religious minorities and attack the free press.

Nils Muiznieks has raised alarms about many of these issues. He's just finished his six-year term as the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, the continent's main human rights watchdog.

"My mandate was marked by a whole succession of crises," Muiznieks tells NPR. "The economic crisis and the fallout that had on human rights, the Ukraine crisis and the tensions and suffering that that created, the migration policy crisis, which fueled a lot of racism and nationalism within Europe and undermined European solidarity, and a whole string of terrorist attacks and very problematic responses on the parts of governments."

He says those crises developed along with backsliding on a range of human rights issues.

Muiznieks' own parents were refugees. They left Latvia during World War II and lived in displaced persons camps for years, eventually coming to the United States.

As responses have hardened against migrants, he says he has spotted parallels between the U.S. and Europe: "For example, on migration, discriminating against certain groups, building walls, deporting people. This narrative already existed in Europe, but what's been going on in the last year and a half has reinforced that trend in Europe and globally — the building of walls and trying to keep people out," he says.

On why he sees human rights backsliding in areas across Europe

One reason is generational change. The system was created to basically prevent war, genocide, and dictatorship. The people in power now aren't so afraid of war, dictatorship, and genocide. They're afraid of other things, and the public is as well, [including] terrorism, migration, economic insecurity. People are in the illusion that war, genocide, and dictatorship cannot happen again. But my own view is that democracies are quite fragile and that war, especially in some areas of Europe, is never far away. Most people in Europe don't think that way.

I think another reason is you've had these attacks on human rights by populists, by the tabloid media, that human rights is the smug jargon of liberal elites who are disconnected from the masses. And they very successfully distort what human rights means. They often claim that human rights have been captured by specific unpopular groups — by gays, by migrants, by various marginalized or vulnerable groups in society. And then, the majority doesn't see how human rights belong to them or are relevant to their concerns. ... Human rights are being attacked, and we have to fight back.

On the threat of war, genocide or dictatorship in Europe

In the Western Balkans, in the area of ex-Yugoslavia, this region is more fragile than it was six, seven years ago. Nationalism and revisionism is on the rise. You have the glorification of war criminals in several countries. And you have very little learning from the past — very little reconciliation that is taking place there. You have an ongoing conflict in Ukraine, you have countries that are seriously backsliding. So war and the threat of bloodshed is still very much alive in many countries in Europe.

Racism now is a very different beast than it used to be. It used to be biological and it used to be hierarchical. Now, what we see is a cultural racism that says, "We're not better or worse. We're just so different that we can't live together. We should live separately, go to school separately." And we see it against migrants — we see it against Muslims in particular in Europe. The targets are ever-changing, but I think the same animus is there.

On whether refugees nowadays have the opportunities his parents had

I've thought about that a lot. I don't think they do, actually. I think it's much harder to be a refugee [today than it was after World War II in America] because you're accused of being an economic migrant looking for a better life whose going to bring in all of your family members and you should stay where you came from. The key thing for refugee integration and for the success of the policy is economic growth and economic opportunity. And if economies are stagnant then people are afraid. My parents were quite fortunate. They did quite well for themselves. And I think it's a very different world now.

On the biggest issue he faced in six years as commissioner

The biggest crisis I confronted throughout my mandate was the migration policy crisis. I just struggled to keep human rights on the agenda, and as part of the frame of discussion about migration, asylum and refugees. This was the area where countries were most tempted to cut corners on human rights.

Selena Simmons-Duffin, Lauren Hodges, and Renita Jablonski produced and edited the audio story. Sydnee Monday adapted it for the Web.
The Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights says the death toll from ongoing anti-government protests has reached 38.