Human Rights Watch welcomes El Salvador’s acceptance of 152 recommendations received during its Universal Periodic Review (UPR). However, we regret El Salvador’s decision to reject key recommendations to address the country’s deteriorating human rights situation, including those calling for the restoration of due process guarantees, the end of the state of emergency and repeal of abusive laws, and the protection of civic space, press freedom, reproductive rights, and the rights of LGBT people.
El Salvador dismissed recommendations aimed at upholding due process during the ongoing state of emergency, under which more than 86,000 people have been detained since March 2022. Thousands remain in pretrial detention without access to lawyers or contact with their families. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have documented widespread abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, uninvestigated deaths in custody, and systemic due process violations.
El Salvador also rejected recommendations to safeguard the work of human rights defenders and ensure press freedom. In May 2025, the government enacted a sweeping “Foreign Agents” law, granting authorities broad powers to surveil, sanction, or dissolve civil society organizations and media outlets that receive foreign funding. That same month, authorities arrested Ruth López, a prominent anti-corruption lawyer with the human rights organization Cristosal, and sent her to pretrial detention in a case declared under seal. Her detention comes amid a broader crackdown on civil society that has forced at least 40 journalists into exile in recent weeks.
El Salvador also rejected all recommendations urging the decriminalization of abortion, including in cases of rape or threats to a woman or girl’s life. El Salvador maintains a total abortion ban that has led to the prosecution and imprisonment of women, including those who faced obstetric emergencies.
Human Rights Watch urges El Salvador to take concrete steps to restore judicial independence and due process guarantees, uphold reproductive rights, and ensure that human rights defenders and independent media can operate freely and without fear of reprisals, including by repealing the “Foreign Agents” law.
