At the request of the Comisión de los Derechos Humanos de El Salvador, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal held a session on El Salvador in Mexico City from 9 to 12 February 1981. The Tribunal was asked to ascertain whether a policy of extermination was being pursued in the country, and to identify the responsibilities of the Revolutionary Government Junta, the armed forces, the security forces, paramilitary groups, and the United States. The session took place against a backdrop of escalating violence and intensifying internal armed conflict.
Based on extensive documentation and testimony from religious, trade union, peasant, political, and human rights organisation representatives, the Tribunal documented extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture, and massacres. The Tribunal examined these violations in light of international law and the right of the Salvadoran people to self-determination.
In its Judgement, the Tribunal recognised the systematic nature of the repression, affirmed the Salvadoran state’s international responsibility for serious human rights violations, and maintained that violence perpetrated against a section of society may fulfil the elements of the crime of genocide, thereby broadening the interpretation of the 1948 Convention.
Requesting organisations: Comisión de los Derechos Humanos de El Salvador
Documentation: