IACHR
Press Release
IACHR Concerned about Bill that Would Leave Unpunished Serious Human Rights Violations of El Salvador’s Past
April 25, 2019
IACHR Press and Communication Office
Tel: +1 (202) 370-9000
cidh-prensa@oas.org
Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) expresses its profound concern about the National
Reconciliation bill that is currently being debated in El Salvador’s
National Assembly, which would promote impunity in cases of serious
human rights violations committed in the country in the past.
According to the information the Commission has had access to, the bill
provides for a “broad, absolute and unconditional amnesty” for people who
were involved in “political crimes, common crimes associated with them, and
common crimes committed by a minimum of 20 people before January 1, 1992.”
Among others, this bill would grant a pardon to all persons convicted of
such crimes. The bill provides for exceptions to such an amnesty, including
“war crimes and crimes against humanity,” but it sets a deadline to take
such events before the courts, 180 days after the proposed law goes into
force.
The Salvadoran State already had similar legislation in place after its
internal armed conflict. In the 1990s, the Inter-American Commission
established that the Amnesty Act failed to comply with the Salvadoran
State’s international obligations, because it was a hurdle in the search for
justice for victims of serious human rights violations and their families.
In 2016, the Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador’s Supreme Court declared
that the law was unconstitutional, based on the consideration that “the
objective and subjective terms of that amnesty violate the obligation to
protect fundamental rights […], since they preclude enforcement of the
State’s obligations to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish serious
violations of fundamental rights and to provide reparations for any such
violations.” The
IACHR welcomed that court decision.
The IACHR and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have repeatedly
stated that dispositions to grant broad, absolute and unconditional
amnesties preserve impunity in cases of serious human rights violations,
since they make it impossible to effectively investigate human rights
violations and to prosecute and punish the people responsible for them. The
Commission has stated that crimes against humanity have a series of features
that set them apart from other crimes, based on the ends and goals they
seek. Such features include the concept of humanity as the victim and the
aim of ensuring non-repetition of attacks against democracy and of
unforgettable atrocities.
“Any dispositions that seek to prevent investigation and punishment
concerning the people responsible for serious human rights violations are
inadmissible,” said Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay, IACHR Rapporteur
for El Salvador. “The State must not adopt regulations that enable impunity
for events that are that serious.” “This bill’s dispositions are a major
step back in terms of memory, truth and justice, particularly concerning
amnesties for serious human rights violations,” said Commissioner Antonia
Urrejola, head of the Rapporteurship on Memory, Truth and Justice. “Creating
hurdles for justice prevents victims and their families from getting to know
the truth and from receiving the reparations they are entitled to,” she
stressed.
The IACHR urges the Salvadoran State to refrain from adopting initiatives
of this kind and to keep investigating such serious crimes, identifying the
people responsible for them and enforcing any relevant punishments. Finally,
the IACHR encourages and supports all democratic groups in the country in
their efforts to fight impunity. In the context of its operations and
mandate, the IACHR remains ready to keep cooperating with the Salvadoran
State and to provide technical assistance for all efforts made to ensure the
effective exercise of the rights to truth and justice in El Salvador.
A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.
No. 104/19