UNWGEID Mission to El Salvador

At the invitation of the Government of El Salvador, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances visited the country from 5 to 7 February 2007. The Working Group was represented by its Chairperson-Rapporteur, Mr. Santiago Corcuera, and Working Group member, Mr. Darko Gottlicher. The mission was part of a regional visit to four Central American countries with a large number of cases to be clarified: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

 The main purpose of the mission was to gather information to serve as a basis for clarifying the greatest possible number of cases on the Working Group’s registers. During its visit, the Working Group also expressed a wish to look into ways of opening channels for cooperation between the Government of El Salvador and the Working Group in order to examine cases of disappearance in the light of international human rights standards, and more specifically the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (the “Declaration”), proclaimed by the General Assembly in resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992.

 The Working Group held meetings with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, members of the Justice and Human Rights Commission and the Legislative Assembly’s Commission on Foreign Relations, Central American Integration and Expatriate Salvadorans, the Vice-Minister for Public Security and Justice, the Procurator for the Protection of Human Rights, the Deputy Attorney-General of the Republic, the Minister of National Defence, and members of the Inter-institutional Commission to Search for Children who Disappeared owing to Armed Conflict in El Salvador.

 The Working Group also met members of various civil society organizations and the families of victims of enforced disappearances, with whom it held open and objective discussions. The Working Group gave all those concerned a list of the cases to be clarified and explained the applicable criteria for considering the cases pending to be resolved. At the end of the visit, the delegation held a press conference.

[...]

Among the recommendations contained in this report, the Working Group highlights the following:

 (a) Ratify the Inter-American Convention of Enforced Disappearance of Persons, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons of Enforced Disappearance;

 (b) Revise the legal provisions defining the offence of enforced disappearance, taking into account the comments made in the report on the shortcomings detected by the Working Group;

 (c) Take effective steps to guarantee and enforce the rights to justice, truth, redress and rehabilitation, calling on the Legislative Assembly substantially to overhaul the 1993 Amnesty Act and bring it into line with the remarks made in paragraph 8 of the general comment issued by the Working Group on article 18 of the Declaration;

 (d) Take steps to bring into effect the provision contained in article 5 of the Declaration, which lays down that, in addition to such criminal penalties as are applicable, those presumed to be responsible for enforced disappearances must also be rendered liable under civil law. In other words, they must compensate the victims for any damage caused and be suspended from any official duties, in accordance with what is laid down in article 16, paragraph 1, of the Declaration;

(e) Create and implement an effective plan to search for disappeared persons, not limited to the search for missing children. It is recommended that the plan should include genuine participation by civil society organizations and be sanctioned by the legislature;

 (f) Implement, as part of the comprehensive search programme, an integral reparation plan including adequate indemnification and other means of redress, such as the fullest possible rehabilitation, in full exercise of the right to justice and truth;

 (g) Make available to the interested parties any information and documentation that might still be restricted, in order to boost the results of the search for disappeared persons, in full exercise of the right to information.

I. INTRODUCTION

 II. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
  A. Purpose of the visit
  B. Historical and political background
  C. The phenomenon of enforced disappearance in El Salvador

 III. CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON  
  ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE
  A. The Constitution
  B. The Criminal Code
  C. International human rights treaties
  D. Office of Procurator for the Protection of Human Rights
  E. 1993 Amnesty Act

 IV. SEARCH FOR DISAPPEARED PERSONS
  A. Right to truth and information

 V. IMPUNITY AND EFFECTS OF THE AMNESTY ACT

 VI. HARASSMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMEN

 VII. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS