Amnesty International stated on Thursday that authorities in El Salvador have misused the penal justice system and recent legal reforms to repress human rights defenders and silence dissenting voices, thereby undermining the rule of law in the country.

Amnesty International’s Americas director Ana Piquer said: “Instead of impartially delivering justice, the criminal justice system in El Salvador has become a weapon to punish dissent and stifle civic space.”

The organization noted that the country’s authorities implemented a “repressive apparatus” through criminal procedures and used it to silence human rights activists. This was particularly the case with the state of exception that has been in effect since 2022. According to Amnesty International, the state of exception has been misused to conduct mass detentions, impose disproportionate terms of administrative detention, and suspend judicial guarantees under the guise of legality. Additionally, the adopted criminal reforms, such as the concealment of judges’ identity, automatic application of pretrial detention, and expansion of punitive measures to minors, violated international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Amnesty International also documented cases in which authorities employed vague legal classifications to criminalize activists and trade unionists. Victims experienced arbitrary detention and underwent judicial proceedings without due process rights. For instance, three human rights lawyers faced criminal prosecution as a result of their activism. Amnesty International further stated that authorities unlawfully broadened the application of the state of exception and its procedural measures to the accused lawyers, including the suspension of procedural guarantees and deadlines, while they have only been accused of common crimes unrelated to criminal gangs.

Human rights abuses have continued within El Salvador’s prisons, where detainees are held in overcrowded conditions, subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, denied timely medical care, and exposed to the risk of torture. These violations affected not only the health and well-being of detainees but also their families. Therefore, Amnesty International called on Salvadoran authorities to release all individuals detained solely for their human rights activism and urged the international community to intensify scrutiny of the misuse of the criminal justice system by authorities.

The security and human rights situations in El Salvador have raised concerns since authorities announced the state of emergency on March 27, 2022, in response to a surge of gang violence. The crackdown on gang-related homicides involved mass arrests and the suspension of constitutional rights, which drew criticism from human rights organizations. In addition, a series of legal reforms have faced criticism from rights groups for human rights violations. These reforms included the amendment of criminal laws permitting authorities to detain 12-year-old children in adult prisons, and the “foreign agents law” imposing administrative measures on groups receiving international funding. While Salvadoran authorities argue that these measures were necessary to preserve sovereignty and restore security in the country, organizations claim that they are part of a broader campaign against political dissent.