Contreras et al. v. El Salvador

Key Judgment

Legal Relevance

Keywords: Juridical Personality | Obligation to Prevent | Children/Youth | Women and Girls

Themes: Prevention | Justice and Truth | Persons and Groups Affected

The Court noted that victims of enforced disappearance are in an aggravated situation of vulnerability, which is exacerbated where there is a systematic pattern of human rights violations. When disappearances involve children, the illegal abduction of their biological parents puts the children's life, survival, and development at risk. The Court considered it necessary for the State to adopt clear and concrete strategies aimed at overcoming impunity in the prosecution of enforced disappearances of children during the armed conflict; to make visible the systematic nature of this crime (which mainly affected Salvadorian children); and to prevent these acts from being repeated (or from being considered as a normal consequence of, or inherent to, the armed conflict).

The Court recognised that, although the right to identity is not expressly established in the American Convention on Human Rights, in this case various illegal actions were committed to prevent the re-establishment of the connection between the abducted minors and their families. These actions interfered with the children's private lives and resulted in infringements of the right to a name and to family relations. The Court concluded that this set of violations constituted an impairment or loss of the right to identity.

Among the reparation measures, the Court ordered the State to adopt all appropriate and necessary measures for the restitution of the identity of Ms. Gregoria Herminia Contreras. This included restoring the name and surname given to her by her biological parents, as well as other personal data, which should include the amendment of all State records in El Salvador.