A/HRC/42/16 Introduction 1. The Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, established in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, held its thirty-third session from 6 to 17 May 2019. The review of Nicaragua was held at the 16th meeting, on 15 May 2019. The delegation of Nicaragua was headed by the Minister Adviser to the President of Nicaragua for International Relations and the Wider Caribbean, Valdrack Ludwing Jaentschke Whitaker. At its 18th meeting, held on 17 May 2019, the Working Group adopted the report on Nicaragua. 2. On 15 January 2019, the Human Rights Council selected the following group of rapporteurs (troika) to facilitate the review of Nicaragua: Mexico, Pakistan and Rwanda. 3. In accordance with paragraph 15 of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1 and paragraph 5 of the annex to Council resolution 16/21, the following documents were issued for the review of Nicaragua: (a) A national report submitted/written presentation made in accordance with paragraph 15 (a) (A/HRC/WG.6/33/NIC/1); (b) A compilation prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in accordance with paragraph 15 (b) (A/HRC/WG.6/33/NIC/2); (c) A summary prepared by OHCHR in accordance with paragraph 15 (c) (A/HRC/WG.6/33/NIC/3). 4. A list of questions prepared in advance by Belgium, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Germany, Portugal, on behalf of the Group of Friends on national implementation, reporting and follow-up, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America was transmitted to Nicaragua through the troika. These questions are available on the website of the universal periodic review. I. Summary of the proceedings of the review process A. Presentation by the State under review 5. The head of the delegation pointed out that Nicaragua was a young democracy, born in 1979 after the Sandinista Popular Revolution, which had achieved profound social, economic and political transformations, despite the war of aggression that had been imposed on the country. However, after the first peaceful governmental transition, in 1990, neoliberal policies had been implemented, reversing the rights of the people. 6. Since 2007, the Government had designed successive human development programmes and was currently implementing the 2018–2021 Programme. Between 2014 and 2016, it had reduced the overall poverty rate from 29.6 to 24.9 per cent, and extreme poverty from 8.3 to 6.9 per cent. Between 2014 to April 2018, economic growth had been maintained at more than 5 per cent of gross domestic product per year, making the Nicaraguan economy the third fastest growing economy in Latin America. 7. International organizations had recognized that Nicaragua had met Millennium Development Goal 1 by reducing poverty and hunger by half and lowering the Gini coefficient from 0.38 to 0.33. Nicaragua had also achieved Millennium Development Goal 4 by reducing the infant mortality rate by two thirds by 2015. 8. The right to free, quality education had been restored, and educational enrolment had increased by 22.1 per cent between 2008 and 2018. Some 5,370,168 students had benefited from nutrition and school retention programmes during the reporting period. Some 1,748 schools and 2,132 classrooms had been refurbished and 522 distance learning secondary schools had been established in rural areas. 2