El Salvador: UN experts demand protection for Ruth López after enforced disappearance

GENEVA – UN experts* today urged the Government of El Salvador to ensure woman human rights defender Ruth López is granted all fundamental legal safeguards and due process guarantees while in detention.

Ruth López is a human rights lawyer and the director of the Justice and Anti-Corruption Unit of Fundación Cristosal, a Salvadorean civil society organisation dedicated to defending human rights and protecting victims of violence in Central America. López was detained at her home in the late hours of 18 May 2025 by members of the National Civil Police of El Salvador, who allegedly accused her of embezzlement relating to her work as an advisor to a magistrate in the Supreme Electoral Tribunal from 2009 to 2014. Authorities did not disclose her fate and whereabouts to her family or legal representatives until 20 May 2025, thus subjecting her to enforced disappearance until that point.

“State authorities who detain individuals and refuse to acknowledge that they are in custody or disclose their fate or whereabouts place them outside the protection of the law,” the experts said. “Such acts constitute an enforced disappearance, regardless of the length of detention or concealment.”

The experts stressed that women who are subjected to enforced disappearance often face gender-specific harm, including sexual and other forms of gender-based violence.

“The enforced disappearance of human rights defenders is a strategy often used to spread terror,” the experts said. “It creates a chilling effect in society, deterring individuals from taking action to protect the public interest out of fear.”

“We urge the Government of El Salvador to protect and promote diversity, and provide a public space where different opinions and historical interpretations can be openly expressed,” the experts said. “Anyone who challenges dominant narratives should not feel at risk of repression.”

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is in contact with authorities in El Salvador about this issue.