The criminal law amendments passed by El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly infringe “basic due process guarantees and children’s rights,” according to a statement issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) Friday.
The amendments were proposed by President Nayib Bukele in response to several instances of deadly gang-related violence, which killed about 62 people on March 26 alone.
The statement noted that the amendments “allow judges to imprison children as young as 12, restrict freedom of expression, and dangerously expand the use of pretrial detention and counterterrorism legislation.” The measures were approved days after the assembly imposed a “state of emergency” to deal with the increased number of killings by criminal gangs.
The amendments passed on March 30 lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 16 years to 12 years for children accused of belonging to “terrorist groups or any other criminal gang.” The measures also allow for children aged between 12 and 16 to be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and for children aged 16 to 20 for up to 20 years.
The legislation passed on April 5 allows law enforcement officials to file criminal charges against individuals accused of creating or assisting in the creation of “any type of publication, image, graffiti or other form of visual expression that explicitly or implicitly transmits messages about, or that alludes to the various types of gangs.” It allows such individuals to be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
The law also allows criminal charges to be filed against media outlets for reproducing or transmitting messages or statements created or allegedly created by gangs, that could generate a state of anxiety and panic among the general public.
The statement highlighted the vast implications of the amendments:
These overbroad provisions could easily be used to target critics and journalists. They are inconsistent with international human rights protections for freedom of speech and association, which may only be restricted when necessary and proportionate to achieve a legitimate goal, such as to protect national security or the rights of others.
