The IACHR issued legal protection measures in favor of the digital newspaper El Far and its journalists against threats, harassment, intimidation, as well as criminalization and stigmatization by the government of Nayib Bukele.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued legal protection measures in favor of the digital newspaper El Far and its journalists against threats, harassment, intimidation, as well as criminalization and stigmatization by the government of Nayib Bukele.
The IACHR, one of the main organs of the Organization of American States (OAS) for the promotion and defense of human rights, has ordered precautionary measures in the State of El Salvador considering the “gravity, urgency and irreparability” of the facts, ranging from threats, discrimination, discredit through state media and other hostilities.
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In view of this, it calls on the government of Nayib Bukele to take the necessary measures to preserve the lives and integrity of 34 people who are part of the Lighthouse, as well as to “be able to carry out their journalistic activities in the exercise of the their right to freedom of expression, without being subjected to acts of intimidation, threats and harassment. “
The government must submit a report on the actions taken to investigate the alleged facts that led to the adoption of this precautionary measure and thus prevent them from happening again.
That is why it gives you a period of 15 days and the obligation to deliver reports on the matter periodically.
The IACHR clarified that these provisions do not constitute a prejudice about the possible violation of the rights protected in the American Convention and other applicable instruments.
Precautionary measures oblige the state to protect life and integrity from any attack. This implies not only protecting them from any attack or attack, but refraining from carrying out any action coming from the state apparatus that could seriously jeopardize their life and integrity.
They also imply the obligation to abstain from the state apparatus and its officials from carrying out any act of intimidation, threat or obstruction of journalistic and investigative work.
They imply that the State, through the competent bodies to investigate and judge, and not through another state body, such as the Executive, must investigate impartially and exhaustively, identify those responsible and intellectuals and judge the alleged perpetrators.
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In addition, it means that effective measures must be taken to ensure that the facts reported are not repeated. The sanction to the material and intellectual people in charge and the publication of the truth, is precisely one of these measures of non-repetition that must be adopted, among others, guaranteeing in this way the eradication of the impunity of this type. of facts that affect not only the digital newspaper, but the entire independent journalistic guild of the country.
The precautionary measures adopted do not represent a definitive failure of the case, but urgent measures that must be taken by the State in order to avoid serious and irreparable damage to the people favored by the measures.
The Inter-American Commission (IACHR) is the main body of the OAS responsible for the promotion and defense of human rights throughout the Americas. Knows and verifies the human rights violations that have taken place in all the countries of the continent. It receives complaints from victims and civil society organizations, and determines the responsibility of states for such violations. The Commission is the only instance that can submit cases of human rights violations before the Inter-American Court of DH, which is the OAS inter-American tribunal that judges and convicts states for human rights violations.