The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called on the State of El Salvador on Thursday to restore the rights suspended since March 2022 under an emergency regime “installed in the country for reasons of citizen security.”
El Salvador completed one year with this measure at the end of March, which has left more than 66,400 arrests and at least 5,082 complaints of arbitrary arrests collected by humanitarian organizations.
“The IACHR urges the State to respect human rights in adopting measures for the prevention, control, and response to crime, as well as to investigate, prosecute, and punish criminal activities,” the agency said in a statement.
(Keep reading: The ‘Bukele effect’: the controversial state of exception in force in Honduras).
It added that “the IACHR has alerted the State of El Salvador that the suspension of rights and guarantees, especially when applied indefinitely, constitutes an inadequate mechanism to deal with common crime” and highlighted that there had been “188 days without homicides in the last 12 months”.
4,000 occupy the new prison inaugurated by Nayib Bukele at the end of January.
The IACHR also indicated that “it has repeatedly expressed its concern regarding multiple complaints of abuses and irregularities in the arrests and judicial proceedings carried out, as well as violations of the rights of the detainees.”
“The State has also been urged to ensure judicial guarantees and protection, as well as dignified treatment of all persons in state custody.”
The State must ensure that its efforts against crime and violence conform to the limits indicated in the international systems for the protection of human rights.
(Read also: Organizations deliver balance of the year of the exception regime in El Salvador).
He pointed out that he “recognizes the great challenges of the State to face the high rates of violence resulting from the activities of criminal structures such as gangs.”
“The State must ensure that its efforts against crime and violence -both control and prevention as the objective of any citizen security policy- conform to the limits indicated in the international systems for the protection of human rights in accordance with the principles of the rule of law,” he stressed.
The emergency regime, in which the Government of Nayib Bukele frames the so-called “war against gangs”, suspends rights such as the defense of detainees and the inviolability of telecommunications.
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EFE
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