El Salvador
Since taking office, the administration of President Nayib Bukele has launched an assault on democratic institutions, including by summarily replacing the attorney general and all the judges in the Supreme Court’s constitutional chamber.
In March 2022, pro-Bukele lawmakers adopted a state of emergency, suspending a range of constitutional rights in response to a peak in gang violence. Security forces arrested tens of thousands of people, including hundreds of children, and committed widespread human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture and other ill-treatment of detainees.
Dozens have died in prison. At the same time, authorities report a significant decrease in gang violence, including a drop in homicides. Severe restrictions on access to abortion, harassment and arbitrary criminal proceedings against journalists and civil society organizations, and poor accountability for human rights violations remain serious concerns.

- Women's RightsFor centuries, women worldwide have experienced violence in their homes at the hands of intimate partners with no or very little legal recourse. I witnessed this firsthand.Obstetric Violence Is Gender-Based Violence. It’s Time the Law Recognized It.
September 16, 2025
Commentary
Executive Director, Women's Rights DivisionPublished in:More To Her Story
Videos
Watch more VideosReports
More reports- November 12, 2025 Report
“You Have Arrived in Hell”
Torture and Other Abuses Against Venezuelans in El Salvador’s Mega Prison

- June 27, 2025 Report
El Salvador: Police Officers Speak Out About Abuses
Arbitrary Detention Based on Quotas, Fabricated Evidence

- July 16, 2024 Report
“Your Child Does Not Exist Here”
Human Rights Abuses Against Children Under El Salvador’s “State of Emergency”

- December 7, 2022 Report
“We Can Arrest Anyone We Want”
Widespread Human Rights Violations Under El Salvador’s “State of Emergency”

News
- December 1, 2025 Submission
El Salvador: Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
103rd Pre-Sessional Working Group - Consideration of State Report
- September 2, 2025 Commentary
El Salvador’s Democracy Is Dying

- July 3, 2025 Dispatches
EU Should Act Against El Salvador’s Dismantling of Democracy
Use Human Rights Toolbox in a Strategic Way

- June 30, 2025 Statement
El Salvador: Deteriorating Human Rights Situation Requires Concrete Steps
HRW Oral Statement - Universal Periodic Review Outcome Adoption - HRC59

- June 27, 2025 Report
El Salvador: Police Officers Speak Out About Abuses
Arbitrary Detention Based on Quotas, Fabricated Evidence

- May 23, 2025 News Release
El Salvador: Foreign Agents Law Targets Civil Society, Media
Undermines Freedoms of Expression, Association

- May 20, 2025 News Release
El Salvador: Prominent Human Rights Defender Arrested
Crackdown Against Civil Society Groups
- May 14, 2025 Commentary
Bukele’s Black Box
Thanks to outside pressure, Kilmar Abrego García got a rare chance to talk with the outside world. But thousands of Salvadoran prisoners remain cut off

- April 18, 2025 Dispatches
One Man’s Ordeal Triggers Test of US Constitution
Trump Should Facilitate Abrego Garcia’s Return

- April 11, 2025 News Release
US/El Salvador: Venezuelan Deportees Forcibly Disappeared
Disclose Fate of all Detainees; End Incommunicado Detention

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