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Judiciary Reform – 1995

The new Supreme Court of Justice began to modernize and purify the judiciary, as recommended by the Commission on the Truth and ONUSAL. The Court stopped short of complying with the recommendations to decentralize, however. By the time of the last report by the ONUSAL Human Rights Division, the National Council of the Judiciary was not developed into the empowered independent body envisioned in the Peace Agreements and the recommendations of the Commission on the Truth. At the same time, the Judicial Training School had not enacted selection criteria that would adequately implement the Peace Agreements, and reforms had not been made to curtail arbitrary detention, pre-trial detention and punishment.¹

MINUSAL later confirmed that the Legislative Assembly failed to pass a number of required reforms by the end of the year, let alone the 31 October 1995 deadline. Stalled reforms included the criminal code, penitentiary law, repeal of the 1996 police law, and guarantees of due process.²

The Supreme Court of Justice contemplated creating special courts with anonymous judges to hear cases of alleged crimes detailed in the report of the Commission on the Truth.³

1. “Thirteenth Report of the Director of the Human Rights Division of the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL),” United Nations General Assembly / Security Council (A/49/888 S/1995/281), April 18, 1995.
2. “Mission of the United Nations in El Salvador: Report of the Secretary-General,” United Nations General Assembly (A/50/935), April 23, 1996.
3. “El Salvador considers special courts,” United Press Internaitonal, February 14, 1995.