El Salvador must limit state of emergency, end arbitrary detention

A couple of weeks before the discussion of its human rights record in the context of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the government of El Salvador renewed the state of emergency in the country for the 34th time. The state of emergency, and how it facilitates arbitrary detention, was a key focus of UPR recommendations. 

According to official records, 80,000 people are held in detention, the highest prisoner rate in the world. Amnesty International and other civil society organisations noted in their UPR submission, that thousands are held arbitrarily. In their submission to the UPR, IM Defensoras highlighted the risks for women, in particular, when they challenge the arbitrary detention of their family members. 

Civil society submissions to the UPR and side events are key contributions to ensuring the reality on the ground is shared in discussion and decision-making spaces and informs recommendations made to the State under review. 

Ahead of the UPR, the first ever side event on El Salvador at the Palais de Nations in Geneva was held, organised by DPLF, Rights to Security and CCPR. Speakers pointed to the ways arbitrary detention in the country is facilitated, including through the lack of judicial and prosecutorial independence. Panelists spoke of the arrested facing extended periods in custody before being charged and of secret detentions.  They also highlighted the fact that the security model employed by the El Salvador government is studied and copied by governments across the region leading to the normalisation of  the human rights violations the model promotes and facilitates. 

During the UPR itself, 74 States shared recommendations focused on a range of topics including, the respect of freedom of expression, the rights of the most vulnerable in society, and the ongoing state of emergency. 

Interactive dialogue

Delegations from Norway, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Spain and Colombia, among others, expressed their concern about the state of emergency, highlighting the detrimental effects it has had on the exercise of human rights. The New Zealand delegation recommended that the Salvadoran authorities establish a temporary framework to lift the state of emergency on a permanent basis as well as review and repeal the laws and regulations passed under the state of emergency that permanently suspend due process, and ensure that the fair trial guarantees and procedural rights of all persons detained during the state of emergency are respected and upheld.

The dialogue also served as an opportunity to highlight the situation of women and girls, especially access to sexual and reproductive health services, as well as the rights of Indigenous Peoples and called on El Salvador to ratify Convention 169 of the World Labour Organisation. The delegations also highlighted the role of human rights defenders and made recommendations to El Salvador for the elaboration of protection measures.

‘UN focus on El Salvador must continue’, said ISHR’s Eleanor Openshaw. ‘Without pressure for the respect of human rights guarantees, the risk is that the features of the state of emergency in the country becomes a de facto policy and the security model employed in the country is applied further and further afield without serious questioning. The threat to vulnerable populations, in particular, is great as are threats to human rights defenders who denounce the situation’.