El Salvador: Concern at measures in response to rising gang violence

We are deeply concerned by the series of measures recently introduced in El Salvador in response to the rise in gang killings.

Since the state of emergency adopted on 27 March, police and military forces have been deployed to gang stronghold areas and reportedly resorted to unnecessary and excessive use of force. More than 5,747 people have been detained without an arrest warrant, and some have reportedly been subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

In addition to the state of emergency, we are deeply concerned about certain amendments to criminal law and criminal procedure. These raise serious concerns from the perspective of international human rights law and standards, through their imposition of elevated sentences, including with respect to children, in combination with weakening of due process guarantees.

To give you some idea of this:

Criminal trials can now be held in absentia, in the case of alleged gang members, or presided over by so-called “faceless” judges, and that is, judges whose identity remains confidential, while the previous two-year limit to pre-trial detention has been eliminated. Teenagers associated with gangs who are found guilty of serious offences may now be sentenced as adults and serve their sentence in adult rather than juvenile detention. Those aged 12 to 16 must now serve 10-year terms of imprisonment instead of seven years; and those aged 16 to 18 years must serve 20-year terms.

Now we recognise the challenges posed by gang violence in El Salvador and the State’s duty to ensure security and justice. However, it is imperative that this is done in compliance with international human rights law.

We remind El Salvador that the right to life, the right not to be subjected to torture, principles of fair trial and the presumption of innocence, as well as the procedural safeguards that protect these rights, apply at all times, even during states of emergency. This is especially with regard to children.