DPLF recently submitted a comment responding to a call from the International Criminal Court (ICC) Office of the Prosecutor for input on how victim participation should be ensured in the principles of its policy on the crime of gender-based persecution.
President Nayib Bukele has become known for reducing gang-related criminality in El Salvador. But as national and international organizations have warned with increasing alarm, this security has come at a high cost for human rights.
A little over 40 years ago, the village of El Mozote and its surroundings was the scene of an unprecedented massacre. It was December 1981 when, in that community in northeastern El Salvador, almost 1,000 people were executed by the military in the worst massacre of civilians that the country experienced during the armed conflict (1980-1992). More than half the victims were children.
Enforced disappearance, which has been used as a tool of repression in a range of settings worldwide, is both a grave human rights violation and, in some circumstances, a crime against humanity.
Enforced disappearance of persons is a serious human rights violation that, according to international instruments, can be perpetrated by State agents or by non-State actors acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State.
Thirty years ago, a new era began in El Salvador. On January 16, 1992, the government signed a peace agreement with left-wing guerrillas ending the 12-year-long civil war, during which at least 75,000 people perished.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has heard, since its first judgments, cases in which some or some of the victims of enforced disappearance have been women. Although these decisions in which a gender-differentiated approach has been applied are still rare, the standards produced are undoubtedly a relevant input to guide the activities of States in the face of disappearances.
During the second half of the 20th century, several Latin American societies underwent periods of widespread brutal repression and/or internal armed conflict that left in their wake a legacy of massive human rights violations and significant weakening of democratic institutions.
Experts estimate that El Salvador’s 12-year armed conflict resulted in around 75,000 deaths, at least 5,000 disappearances, more than 100 displaced people and the entire El Salvadorian population due to the prolonged, overarching impact of the conflict. Most of these crimes remain unpunished to date.
