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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

sentenced 32 workers from the privately 

owned Tora Cement Company to two months’ 

imprisonment after they were convicted of 

participating in an unauthorized protest and 

“assaulting security forces”, despite the 

peaceful nature of their 55-day sit-in to 

protest at their dismissal. In December, the 

Military Court in Alexandria resumed the trial 

of 25 workers from the military-run 

Alexandria Shipyard Company. The trial 

started in May 2016 on charges that included 

“inciting the workers to strike”. The 

government and the official Egypt Trade 

Union Federation sought to deprive 

independent unions of the de facto 

recognition they had obtained in 2011 

through a declaration issued by the then 

Minster of Manpower. The authorities 

continued to deny their legal recognition and 

hinder their ability to function freely through a 

range of measures.

7

 On 5 December 

parliament passed a new trade union law, 

replacing Law 35 of 1976, creating excessive 

requirements for unions to have at least 150 

members to obtain legal recognition or face 

automatic dissolution.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS

Despite an explicit constitutional provision 

recognizing the Nubian Indigenous people’s 

right to return to their traditional lands, the 

government continued to deny displaced 

Nubians the right to access their traditional 

lands, posing a threat to the preservation of 

their cultural, historical and linguistic identity. 

On 3 September, Nubian activists held a 

protest calling on the authorities to repeal a 

2014 presidential decree that classified 16 

villages on traditional Nubian lands as 

military zones and prohibited residents from 

living there. The police arrested 25 activists 

and detained them for three months.

8

1. New legislation threatens judicial independence in Egypt (

Press 

release

, 27 April)

2. Egypt: NGO law threatens to annihilate human rights groups (

Press 

release

, 30 May)

3. Egypt: Former presidential candidate given jail term in bid to stop 

him running in 2018 election (

Press release

, 25 September)

4. Egypt: 10-year prison term for insulting President an outrageous 

assault on freedom of expression (

Press release

, 13 April)

5. Egypt: Seven men facing imminent execution after being tortured in 

custody (

Press release

, 16 June); Egypt: Four men facing imminent 

executions after grossly unfair military trial (

MDE 12/6590/2017

)

6. Egypt: Government must protect Coptic Christians targeted in string 

of deadly attacks in North Sinai (

Press release

, 1 March)

7. Egypt: On Labour Day – relentless assault on labour rights (

MDE 

12/6154/2017

)

8. Egypt: Release 24 Nubian activists detained after protest calling for 

respect of their cultural rights (

Press release

, 12 September)

EL SALVADOR

Republic of El Salvador

Head of state and government: Salvador Sánchez 

Cerén

El Salvador’s high rate of gender-based 

violence continued to make it one of the 

most dangerous countries to be a woman. A 

total ban on abortion persisted, and women 

were convicted of aggravated homicide after 

suffering miscarriages or other obstetric 

emergencies. To combat violence, the 

government implemented a series of 

security measures, which did not comply 

with human rights standards. Measures 

were taken to address impunity for 

historical abuses; however, the executive 

and legislative branches of government 

admitted being in contempt of a 2016 

Supreme Court judgment that declared the 

1993 Amnesty Law unconstitutional.

BACKGROUND

El Salvador continued to have one of the 

world’s highest murder rates, although the 

number of homicides fell from 5,280 in 2016 

to 3,605 in 2017. The figure for 2017 

included 429 femicides.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Abortion continued to be prohibited in all 

circumstances, and carried criminal penalties 

for women and health care providers. Women 

from poor backgrounds were 

disproportionately affected.

In March, the Inter-American Commission 

on Human Rights (IACHR) admitted a 

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

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petition in the case of Manuela, a woman 

convicted of homicide after having a 

miscarriage, and who died from cancer in 

prison while serving her sentence.

On 5 July, Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz 

was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment 

after being convicted on charges of 

aggravated homicide after suffering obstetric 

complications resulting in a miscarriage. On 

13 December, a court denied the release of 

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez; she had 

suffered a stillbirth in 2007 and was later 

sentenced to 30 years for aggravated 

homicide.

In August a parliamentarian for the 

opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance 

presented a new proposal to decriminalize 

abortion in two circumstances: when a 

woman’s life is at risk or when the pregnancy 

is a consequence of rape of a minor. The 

proposal remained pending in Parliament. 

This followed previous, unsuccessful 

attempts at partial decriminalization of 

abortion in 2016.

In August, Congress approved a law 

banning child marriage, without exceptions.

In November, the IACHR admitted a petition 

on the case of “Beatriz”, a woman who in 

2013 was denied an abortion despite her life 

being put at risk by the pregnancy, and the 

foetus being diagnosed with fatal impairment, 

which would not have allowed its survival 

after birth.

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

In June the home of human rights defender 

Sonia Sánchez Pérez was illegally searched 

by National Civilian Police officers. In 2015 

the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman 

had granted her precautionary measures for 

her environmental protection work.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 

TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

In October, Karla Avelar, a human rights 

defender and founder of the first association 

of trans people in El Salvador, announced 

that she would claim asylum in Europe 

because of a lack of protection by the 

authorities, despite several security incidents, 

threats, and being the victim of extortion by 

criminal gangs. Between January and 

September, the Association for 

Communicating and Training Trans Women in 

El Salvador (COMCAVIS TRANS) reported 28 

serious attacks, most of them murders, 

perpetrated against LGBTI people.

1

EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS

In September the Human Rights Institute of 

José Simeón Cañas Central American 

University and the NGO Passionist Social 

Service reported before the IACHR that the 

armed forces and National Civilian Police 

were responsible for carrying out extrajudicial 

executions.

POLICE AND SECURITY FORCES

In November the UN High Commissioner for 

Human Rights urged El Salvador to end the 

extraordinary security measures adopted 

since 2016 to combat gang violence and 

organized crime, which failed to comply with 

international human rights standards. The 

measures included prolonged and isolated 

detention under inhuman conditions, and 

prolonged suspension of family visits to 

prisoners.

INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE

On 6 and 13 October, for the first time, the 

Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court 

of Justice issued two injunctions (amparo) to 

protect internally displaced people. The 

injunctions included protective measures for 

a family that had been forcibly internally 

displaced due to rape, threats, beatings and 

harassment by a gang. The decision was 

welcomed by the IACHR and the UN Special 

Rapporteur on the human rights of internally 

displaced persons.

IMPUNITY

Measures were adopted nationally and 

internationally to redress crimes under 

international law and punish perpetrators of 

human rights violations committed during El 

Salvador’s armed conflict from 1980 to 1992.

In May, a court ordered the reopening of the 

case of Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero y 

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