The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday urged El Salvador to review the life sentences approved for minors who commit murder, rape, or take part in “terrorism,” arguing that the measure violates children’s rights. El Salvador’s Congress, controlled by the ruling party, amended the juvenile criminal law to apply that punishment to those under 18, as part of President Nayib Bukele’s tougher security policy.
“We urge the authorities of El Salvador to promptly review the troubling constitutional and legal changes (…) that provide for life imprisonment for boys and girls from the age of 12, in contradiction with international human rights standards,” Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said in a statement.
Hurtado recalled that, under those changes, cases involving minors sentenced to life imprisonment will be “reviewed only after they have completed 25 years of detention,” which “runs contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” which requires prioritizing “their rehabilitation and reintegration.”
Bukele responded to the official saying that similar recommendations from the United Nations led gangs to recruit young people under a law that “practically gave impunity to minors under 18 to commit crimes.” On March 17, at Bukele’s proposal, the Legislative Assembly approved life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for adult “murderers, rapists, or terrorists” — previously capped at 60 years — and later extended it to minors.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child and UNICEF said Friday that the reform runs contrary to the “principles enshrined” in the Convention, to which El Salvador is a party, and warned that detention is “harmful to adolescents” and “highly costly and ineffective in preventing crime.”
Bukele’s security policy has reduced homicides in the country to historic lows, but it has been criticized by human rights organizations and legal experts who point to “crimes against humanity” in that crackdown.
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