December 23, 1999
December 23, 1999
Contact HRF Communications (212) 845 5245 media@humanrightsfirst.orgEl Salvador's Amnesty Legislation Violates International Law
Human Rights First Welcomes Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Findings in Jesuit Case
New York, December 23, 1999 -- Human Rights First welcomed today’s ruling by a Washington, DC-based commission that El Salvador’s 1993 amnesty law violates international law by foreclosing further investigation in the 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests and two women.
The Inter-American Commission, which is part of the Organization of American States, calls upon the Salvadoran government to rescind the amnesty law, carry out a complete, impartial and effective investigation into the murders, and prosecute and punish all those responsible. The report finds that the amnesty legislation violates the American Convention on Human Rights not only by allowing two soldiers convicted for the murders to walk free, but also by allowing those in the military high command who orchestrated the killings to avoid investigation, trial and punishment.
The strongly worded report also finds that agents of the Salvadoran state orchestrated and carried out the murders and covered them up, in violation of international human rights law and the provisions of the Geneva Conventions covering the conduct of internal armed conflict. The unarmed Jesuits and women were murdered in pre-dawn hours on November 16, 1989, by a U.S.-trained unit of Salvadoran soldiers, triggering an international outcry. The Jesuits, who supported a peaceful settlement of the civil war in El Salvador, had been subjected to many attacks throughout the 1980s. At least 25 church officials and workers had been killed in El Salvador prior to the November 1989 murders.
Robert Varenik, Human Rights First’s Director of Protection, called upon the Salvadoran government to implement the Commission's recommendations. "This report underscores the Salvadoran government's unmistakable and ongoing obligation under international law to bring to justice those responsible for these murders," said Varenik. "Ten years after the murder, we can do more than hope that things have changed enough to permit the processes of justice to go forward for the human rights tragedies that occurred in El Salvador. The OAS has just made clear that we can demand it."
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