The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), CARECEN-DC, SHARE El Salvador, the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), and the United Methodist Church-General Board of Church and Society invite you to a briefing and reception on:
Human Rights Prosecutions and El Salvador’s Justice System
Featuring
Alejandro Diaz
Executive Director, Tutela Legal Dr. María Julia Hernández
José Artiga
Executive Director, SHARE El Salvador
Leonor Arteaga
Senior Program Officer, Due Process of Law Foundation
Moderated by
Geoff Thale
Program Director, WOLA
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
(Reception to follow)
WOLA
1666 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
To RSVP, please click here.
For more information, please contact Carolyn Scorpio at (202) 797-2171 or cscorpio@wola.org.
A livestream of the event will be available at www.wola.org.
The event will be held in English with Spanish interpretation available.
If the government of El Salvador is to succeed in facing the challenge of gang violence and organized crime, and generate sustained economic growth that benefits all Salvadorans, it will have to overcome the weaknesses of its criminal justice system and demonstrate its ability to enforce the law without fear or favor. One major test of the criminal justice system’s competence will be the successful prosecution of long-standing human rights cases, including the Jesuit killings, the massacres at El Mozote and the Rio Sumpul, and the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero.
There has been renewed interest in these cases in recent months, both in El Salvador and internationally. The movement has emboldened victims and their families and has put the criminal justice system, especially the attorney general, to the test. Please join us for an update on the status of these key human rights cases and the capacity of El Salvador’s criminal justice system to respond.
Alejandro Diaz is the founder and Executive Director of “Tutela Legal Doctora María Julia Hernández”, an independent organization established in 2013 to continue the work of Tutela Legal. A lawyer who specializes in historical memory, Mr. Diaz is also a consultant on human rights issues to the Ombudsman for the Defense of Human Rights of El Salvador (Procurador para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, PDDH) and the Foundation for the Study of Applied Law (Fundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derecho, FESPAD). He currently leads the case surrounding the massacre at Rio Sumpul.
Tutela Legal was the human rights office of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, founded by Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1977, and led for many years by the respected human rights investigator Dr. Maria Julia Hernandez. It researched human rights issues throughout El Salvador’s civil war, followed contemporary human rights issues, and housed an extensive archive of interviews and documents. In 2013, when the archbishop of San Salvador abruptly shut the office and sealed the archives, Alejandro and most of the staff founded “Tutela Legal Doctora María Julia Hernández” to continue the work.
José Artiga is the Executive Director of SHARE El Salvador. SHARE El Salvador has worked to accompany the people of El Salvador for the last 35 years and supports Tutela Legal and Pro Memoria in their search for truth, justice, and reparations for the victims of violations of human rights during the war.
Leonor Arteaga is a Salvadoran lawyer who coordinates the Transitional Program at the Due Process of Law Foundation. She was previously involved with key cases of human rights violations carried out during the internal armed conflict while working in the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defense of Human Rights in El Salvador and with civil society organizations.
