The new sentencing measure comes as President Nayib Bukele oversees a four-year-long state of emergency against crime. Published On 15 Apr 202615 Apr 2026El Salvador has published a new law that will allow authorities to penalise minors as young as 12 with life imprisonment for severe crimes, including homicide, terrorism or rape.On Tuesday, the Salvadoran government released the law, which is slated to take effect on April 26.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe change is part of a suite of hardline policies designed to stamp out gang violence in El Salvador. But critics have warned that such measures risk perpetuating grave human rights abuses.Since March 2022, El Salvador has been under a state of emergency that has suspended certain civil liberties in favour of greater police and military powers.Initially designed to last 30 days, the state of emergency has been renewed dozens of times. And over that time, El Salvador’s government has carried out a campaign of mass arrest and imprisonment.More than 90,000 people have been imprisoned. Groups like Human Rights Watch estimate that nearly 1.9 percent of the population is behind bars, one of the highest rates in the world.Some detainees are held without charges. Others have been processed in mass trials, a process approved in 2023 to allow up to 900 people to be tried at once.The life sentences for minors was approved as part of a constitutional amendment in March, championed by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. The country’s legislative assembly is overwhelmingly controlled by Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party. Wardens in anti-riot gear take part in a demonstration during a media tour of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, CECOT, on October 12, 2023 [Jose Cabezas/Reuters]On social media that month, Bukele denounced the amendment’s …
