Inter-American Commission Reiterates Calls to End Salvadoran State of Exception

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Gabriel Labrador

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The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has once again demanded that the Salvadoran state reinstate all the constitutional guarantees that were suspended when the state of exception was approved in March 2022 and that, as of today, has led to the imprisonment of 81,000 Salvadorans.

On Wednesday, September 4, the IACHR, based in Washington, issued a report on El Salvador that encourages the termination of the state of exception installed in March 2022. The 155-page document makes a detailed review of all the decrees and legal reforms under the state of exception umbrella, and contrasts them with reports from Salvadoran civil society, with international standards of the respect for human rights required by the American Convention on Human Rights, and, mainly, testimonies of victims in El Salvador.

“The IACHR urges the State to repeal the state of exception, ending the suspension of rights and guarantees through the extensions to Legislative Decree No. 333 of 2022 and reiterates that they should maintain indispensable judicial guarantees in all circumstances,” states the report in one of the conclusions.

In general, the document does not demonize the state of exception, but with a technical and detailed language it shows the distance between international standards in terms of respect for human rights and what happens daily in the streets and communities of El Salvador: scenes of people held in prison despite having a letter of release, and then dying in jail due to negligence of the prisons; scenes of torture; and arbitrary detentions under the argument of looking “nervous” to police.

More:
https://elfaro.net/en/202409/el_salvador/27552/inter-american-commission-reiterates-calls-to-end-salvadoran-state-of-exception