3.3 Cancellation of retirement pensions and denial of health care The Ortega-Murillo regime erased the older persons who had been arbitrarily deprived of their nationality from the registers of the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS). As a result, after the judicial decisions of February 2023, they could not access payment of their pensions, nor the issuance of certificates proving that they were insured under the social security system.81 Access to a retirement pension is a right that those concerned acquired by fulfilling the requirements of the Social Security Scheme, as provided for by law, and by completing the corresponding retirement formalities. Most of those affected have had this entitlement for many years.82 Pension payments were suspended abruptly and no official notification or information on the reasons for their cancellation was given to those concerned. On 10 March 2023, human rights defender Vilma Nuñez de Escorcia went to the offices of the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS), where she used to collect the pension that she had been receiving for 22 years. Two officials there informed her that her record was not in the INSS system, and that her pension was “cancelled”. The human rights defender did not obtain any further information. Notwithstanding the manifest arbitrary nature of the state’s actions and the lack of effective remedies for the protection of rights in Nicaragua, Vilma Nuñez de Escorcia appealed to the authorities and requested that her rights be respected and re-established. On 27 March, she submitted a written application to the INSS requesting the payment of her pension. On 7 June, the human rights defender reiterated this claim after the INSS denied her the health care to which she is entitled as a retiree. On 5 June, she was denied her monthly medication, and staff at the clinic where she was being treated told her that she had been erased from the social security system. The INSS has not responded to any of these requests. Denial of access to a social protection system, based on deprivation of nationality, increases the vulnerability of older persons and disproportionately affects their rights.83 Following the February 2023 judicial decisions, those rendered stateless lost protections that they had received by law and which were entitlements, such as income security in old age and access to health and care services. Statutory pension contributions and the payment of pension allowances are protected by the rights to property84 and to social security,85 and are essential to ensure the human dignity of older persons and the promotion of their rights.86 3.4 Permanent suspension from professional practice and inability to access justice On the basis of Law No. 1145, the Supreme Court of Justice, through the National Council for Judicial Administration and Careers,87 disqualified for life 26 of the 317 stateless persons from practising their profession as lawyers and notaries public.88 The president of the Court, Alba Luz Ramos Vanegas, the vice-president, Marvin Ramiro Aguilar García, and judges Juana Méndez Pérez and Virgilio José Gurdián Castellón considered that these persons “lost” their right to hold their titles and 81. O  HCHR, Human Rights Situation in Nicaragua, Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 10 August 2023, A/HRC/54/60, para. 34. In the same vein, IACHR, “Nicaragua: IACHR and REDESCA Express Concern About Violations of Property and Social Security Rights”, 14 April 2023, available at: https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_ center/preleases/2023/061.asp 82. O  ffice of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Communication to the State of Nicaragua, 18 September 2023, Ref: AL NIC 3/2023, p. 5, 7 y 8. 83. I ACHR, “Nicaragua: IACHR and REDESCA Express Concern About Violations of Property and Social Security Rights”, 14 April 2023, available at: https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2023/061.asp 84. A  ccording to the Inter-American Court, the right to property protects the right to receive a pension as an entitlement, since it is “a right that has been incorporated into the patrimony of the persons”. I/A Court H.R, Case of the “Five Pensioners” v. Peru (Merits, Reparations and Costs), Judgment of 28 February 2003, para. 102. 85. A  ccording to the Human Rights Committee, social security “includes the right to access and maintain benefits, whether in cash or in kind, without discrimination, in order to secure protection”. It also includes “the right not to be subject to arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions of existing social security coverage”. Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 19, The right to social security (article 9), E/C.12/GC/19, 4 February 2008, paras 2 and 9. 86. Ibid, para. 1. 87. T  he National Council of Judicial Administration and Careers is a body of the Supreme Court of Justice, established in Article 165 of the Political Constitution of Nicaragua and in Article 4 of Law No. 501. For more information, see: Directorate General of Judicial Careers, Judicial Branch of Nicaragua, available at: https://www.poderjudicial.gob.ni/carrerajudicial/ 88. O  HCHR, Human Rights Situation in Nicaragua, Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 10 August 2023, A/HRC/54/60, para. 35. FIDH - Exile and civil death 10