The plaque in front of the El Mozote memorial reads: “They did not die. They are with us, with you, and with all humanity.” As part of humanity, you and I have a choice. Will we let the victims of the El Mozote massacre lay forgotten in a remote corner of El Salvador? Will we let countless others, in El Salvador, in South Sudan, in Syria, join them? Or will we stand with witnesses like Dorila and demand change?
Read MoreIn a monumental ruling on July 13, El Salvador’s Supreme Court formally charged the administration of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, the Attorney General’s Office, and the National Civil Police with violating citizens’ Constitutional rights by failing to protect and assist victims of forced internal displacement caused by violence.
Read MoreTwo recent reports, one from the UN and the other from Cristosal, re-emphasize the fact that violence is continuing to force young Salvadorans to flee their homes and their country.
Read MoreListen to this recent NPR interview with Obama-era secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, on immigration and Trump. Here’s the quick version:
Read MoreA statement from Executive Director Noah Bullock regarding the U.S. policy of separating children from their parents at the border.
Read MoreDespite its relatively tiny size, El Salvador ranked tenth globally with 296,000 new displacements caused by conflict in 2017.
Read More85 families from El Castaño, who fled from crime in 2016, have returned to their community.
Read MoreIn regard to the appeals for amparo (protection) filed by families displaced by violence before the Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador’s Supreme Court, Cristosal expresses:
Read MoreIn El Salvador, six families who had suffered forced displacement filed requests for protection (amparos) to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice at various times during the past year. To date, the Court has admitted five of these lawsuits and is in the process of admitting the sixth.
Read MoreCristosal’s executive director, Noah Bullock, suggests that the authorities will start creating policies for victim protection when the population demands it.
Read MoreHuman rights organization Cristosal released its 2017 Annual Report on Forced Displacement in El Salvador on Thursday, April 26 to draw attention to the phenomenon and its victims, who are overlooked in El Salvador’s public policy and national dialogue. The same factors that have caused a surge in Salvadoran requests for U.S. asylum in recent years have also displaced hundreds of thousands of people inside the country.
Read MoreAdmitting forced internal displacement exists would mean admitting defeat for the government. Their refusal to accept the problem makes an already desperate situation worse for displaced people. Thus, the government's position regarding internal displacement is not just lazy, but malicious.
Read MoreMaría Julia Hernández was a philosophy professor at the University of El Salvador in the 1970s, remembers Ovidio Mauricio Gonzalez, current coordinator of Tutela Legal “María Julia Hernández." Along with the team of Tutela lawyers, Gonzalez has inherited an ethic of dedication to the defense of the country’s most vulnerable people.
Read MoreOn March 12th and March 13th, El Salvador will present its report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, to review the concerns and recommendations made by this committee four years ago and the progress the country has made since then, regarding the application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which El Salvador is a signatory nation.
Read MoreOn Friday, January 26, witnesses of the 1982 El Calabozo massacre guided judicial officials through an inspection of the site. This recent attention comes almost 26 years after the case was first reported to authorities. At least 200 people died or disappeared at El Calabozo, among them children and pregnant women.
Read MoreNoah Bullock, Cristosal Executive Director, and David Morales, Cristosal Human Rights Director and a prosecuting attorney in the El Mozote case, will travel to Washington, D.C. on February 25-March 2.
Read MoreThe judge in the El Mozote case called two officials from the General Archive of the Armed Forces on February 16 to explain how they carried out the search for information related to the investigation. 25 years ago, the Truth Commission report documented the 1981 massacre of more than 900 people in El Mozote and surrounding areas, as well as the Army’s alleged refusal to admit that information from the civil war existed. Finding this information would make it possible to assign responsibility for the massacre, and also make it clear whether or not archives were destroyed related to this and other crimes against humanity.
Read MoreIn response to the report “Final Mission Declaration,” issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard
Read MoreIndiscriminate machine guns, the thunderous noise of bombings, desperate escapes, and childhood terror fill the testimonies of Alejandro Hernández Argueta, Eugenio Mejía, and Benito Márquez Chicas
Read More
