CIDHHeaderEn.GIF (11752 bytes)

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

Nº 32/99

 

On December 22, 1999, pursuant to Article 51(3) of the American Convention on Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter "the Commission" or "IACHR") decided to publish its Report No.136/99 (Case 10,488), El Salvador. In that report, the Commission establishes that the State of El Salvador is responsible under international law for the murder, in November 1989, of Jesuit priests Ignacio Ellacuría, Ignacio Martín Baró, Segundo Montes, Armando López, Joaquín López y López and Juan Ramón Moreno; of Mrs.Julia Elba Ramos; and her daughter Celina Mariceth Ramos, a minor.

 

In Report No. 136/99, the IACHR reiterates the conclusions and recommendations contained in its reports of September 28, 1999 and November 19, 1999. The only State agents to have been declared guilty of the violations involved in this case benefited shortly afterwards from application of the General Amnesty Law promulgated in El Salvador in 1993. The Commission concludes that the State of El Salvador is responsible for violating the right to life of the persons listed in the foregoing paragraph; that that State has failed to meet its obligation to investigate those violations diligently and effectively, which is why they remain unpunished to this day; and that the General Amnesty Law violates Article 2 of the American Convention. Consequently, the IACHR recommends that the facts be investigated and those responsible punished; that comprehensive reparation be made for the consequences of the established violations; and that El Salvador’s domestic legislation be brought into line with the American Convention.

 

 

Washington, D.C., December 27,1999