Abstract

VASCONCELOS, Raphael Carvalho de  and  PORTO, Gabriela Hunhe. Case of the Massacres of El Mozote and Nearby Places v. El Salvador: Legal and political aspects of fighting the “situation of total impunity”. Rev. secr. Trib. perm. revis. [online]. 2025, vol.13, n.22, e550.  Epub May 28, 2025. ISSN 2304-7887.  https://doi.org/10.16890/rstpr.a13.n23.e550.

Abstract: The Case of the Massacres of El Mozote and Neighbouring Places v. El Salvador of the Inter-American Human Rights System concerns the international responsibility of the State for the human rights violations caused by the multiple and successive massacres that took place in its territory in December 1981 and the lack of adequate investigation of the facts and prosecution of those responsible since then. This article will analyse the legal and political issues related to Transitional Justice present in the trial and enforcement of the judgement on the merits of the El Mozote Massacres Case. The first part is dedicated to analysing the IA Court's understanding of the compatibility of general amnesty laws with the rights to judicial guarantees and judicial protection, Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights, in relation to serious rights violations committed in the context of a non-international armed conflict. The second part presents the challenges faced by States Parties to the American Convention in complying with judgements of the Inter-American Court, especially on politically sensitive topics such as the adoption of domestic law provisions to eliminate the effects of broad and general amnesty laws. It evaluates the repeal of El Salvador's General Amnesty Law for the Consolidation of Peace in 2016, four years after the publication of the judgement in the El Mozote case.

Keywords : International Law; Human Rights; Transitional Justice; Internal armed conflicts; Inter-American Court of Human Right.

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