Challenges in Salvadoran regulation for comprehensive treatment of forced disappearance

Abstract

The crime of forced disappearance is a serious violation of Human Rights that requires technical processes of investigation and determination of the whereabouts of missing persons, as mechanisms that allow the exercise of the right of access to justice. The objective of the investigation was to determine the factors that limit the guarantee of access to justice for victims of disappearance within the Salvadoran judicial system. A qualitative research was carried out, which had a descriptive scope and transversal circumscription; An approach to the phenomenon was carried out from the participants' own experience and subjectivity, through the application of focused interviews and a deep and systematic documentary review. The categories identified were: disappearance of people, legal framework, access to justice, structure of the judicial body, process for access to justice and result. The main results were: the resignification of the concept of forced disappearance, the identification of the emergence of new types of disappearances in the post-war context: disappearance of people due to social violence, forced disappearance and disappearance of migrants. This aspect is relevant, each type of disappearance has specific characteristics that require concrete actions to address. Another relevant aspect was determining the State's shortcomings at the level of process, structure and results to guarantee access to justice for direct and indirect victims. And the lack of provision of additional resources for the investigation of crime, such as the creation of a genetic bank to register cases of disappearances.