Vilma Núñez de Escorcia

Vilma Núñez de Escorcia (née Vilma Núñez Ruiz, 25 November 1938) is a Nicaraguan lawyer and human-rights activist. Born to a single mother, she developed an early concern for social justice. As an undergraduate studying law at National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in León, she met future senior government officials Carlos Tünnerman and Sergio Ramírez, and became one of the survivors of the 23 July 1959 student massacre by the Somoza National Guard. She joined the Sandinista National Liberation Front around 1975 and in 1979 was imprisoned and tortured by the Somoza regime. She was freed days before the FSLN insurrection succeeded on 19 July 1979. When they took power, she served as vice-president of the Supreme Court of Justice, then as director of the National Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

Núñez went on to found the non-governmental organization Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) in 1990 when the FSLN lost power. In 1996, she unsuccessfully challenged Daniel Ortega to be the party's candidate for President; but in 1998 she broke with the party to represent Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, Ortega's stepdaughter who accused him of sexually abusing her as a child. Núñez has since faced harassment and in 2008, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued precautionary measures to protect her. Following the April 2018 anti-government protests, CENIDH was one of a number of non-profits that had their legal status revoked and its office was raided by police, but Núñez insisted on continuing her human rights work. A new challenge came with the 2020 Law for the Regulation of Foreign Agents, which ordered all groups that receive funding from abroad to register as foreign agents; Núñez is challenging its constitutionality in court.

Early life Vilma Núñez was born on 25 November 1938 to unmarried parents, causing a series of exclusions in her young life in conservative Nicaragua: she and her mother Tomasa Núñez Ruiz were unwelcome at school, church and social clubs in Acoyapa, Chontales, perhaps also because of the local influence of her father's wife.

Núñez Sevilla died in 1947, leaving an inheritance to Vilma Núñez and two of her siblings, Léon and Indiana, but this again left their mother subordinate, as funds were not bequeathed directly but instead disbursed at a trustee's discretion.

She did not begin school until age eight, and eventually moved to Managua in search of a good secondary school that would accept her, ultimately enrolling at Colegio Madre del Divino Pastor. who later became a member of the Group of Twelve leading supporters of the Sandinista (FSLN) rebels and eventually the Minister of Education for the FSLN government.

Whilst at UNAN, Núñez survived the , Sergio Ramírez, later vice-president of Nicaragua, was also a student survivor of the day.

Career

Early career and FSLN After graduating, Núñez began working as a litigator, primarily a criminal defense lawyer,

In 1988, the FSLN appointed Núñez director of the newly formed National Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, where she served until 1990. She attributed what limited gender advances were accomplished to the efforts of individual female militants and the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Nicaraguan Women (AMNLAE). Later it also started investigating allegations of human rights violations, problems Núñez recalled as developing after conservative Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC) President Arnoldo Alemán took office in 1997 (Nicaragua's constitution prevented Chamorro from seeking a second term). Zoilamérica reported the allegations to CENIDH and the case became a crossroads for Núñez, bringing into direct conflict her political role with the FSLN and her commitment to advocacy for women and human rights. That year and renewed annually since, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has issued precautionary measures to protect Núñez and her family, although the FSLN government has not complied with these. In 2017, Murillo (by then Nicaragua's Vice-President as well as First Lady) wrote a letter, signed by nine FSLN officials, Their offices were raided by some 60 police officers and some of their members were forced to go into exile in Costa Rica. Other NGOs and press outlets faced similar repression. while the FSLN government insisted the mass resistance was a foreign-orchestrated coup attempt.

Honors In 2011, Núñez was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French embassy for her human rights work. The same year, Núñez won the Stieg Larsson prize for "her long struggle for women's rights and against the unjust anti-abortion laws of Nicaragua," an honor accompanied by a 200,000 Swedish crowns (about 30,000 USD). In 2019 she won the Bremen International Peace Prize, in the category "Ambassador for peace in public life".

Personal life On 25 December 1963, Núñez married Otto Escorcia Pastrán, a dentist she had met at UNAN. Both of them had won awards for best student. Thereafter she went by the name "Vilma Núñez de Escorcia". They have two children (Otto and Eugenia), four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Works 1990, ed., Independencia del poder justicial: Construimos la democracia fortaleciendo el poder judicial