El Salvador
Practice Relating to Rule 117. Accounting for Missing Persons
Section D. Right of the families to know the fate of their relatives
El Salvador’s Decree Creating the National Commission for Tracing Missing Children (2010) states:
Art. 1.- The National Commission for Tracing Girls and Boys Missing during the Internal Armed Conflict, which will be referred to as “Commission” or “Tracing Commission” hereinafter.
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Art. 3.- The Commission shall have the mandate to:
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b) Promote the right of victims to know the truth, through the promotion of procedures for the search of disappeared boys and girls;
c) Preserve and defend the right to an identity of persons that were victims of disappearances.
In 2010, in its written replies to the Human Rights Committee concerning its sixth periodic report, El Salvador stated:
60. During the period under examination, the State has not launched a comprehensive plan for the search of persons disappeared in the context of the internal armed conflict.
61. Despite the above, in the context of the current Government of El Salvador (which assumed its functions on 1 June 2009), the State … has recognized the right of the families of victims of enforced disappearance to know the truth on the whereabouts of their loved ones … in accordance with the standards of International Human Rights Law applicable to El Salvador.
On the issue of the search for children, El Salvador further stated:
[O]n 18 January 2010, Executive Decree No. 5, giving legal validity to the current “National Commission for Tracing Boys and Girls Missing during the internal armed conflict”, was published in the Official Journal. … This Commission, … which will be instituted in July 2010, will have within its functions … the promotion of the right of victims to know the truth by giving momentum to processes for the search of disappeared boys and girls.