IACHR brings case on forced disappearance of five children in El Salvador before IA Court

August 28, 2025

Washington, DC—On August 7, 2025, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) submitted case 13.932, concerning El Salvador, to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IA Court). The case relates to the forced disappearance of five children from the Rivas family—José Vicente, Clara Vilma, Juana Noemy, Gladys Suleyma, and Norma—allegedly at the hands of Armed Forces personnel, as well as the State's failure to investigate and provide reparations.

The petition, received in March 2012, refers to the disappearance of four girls and one boy from the Rivas family who were between the ages of three and eleven in August 1982, during El Salvador's internal armed conflict. Their mother, Nicolasa Rivas, reported that soldiers attacked the family during a military operation near the Chinchontepec volcano and that the family was separated as they fled the area. She testified that a helicopter landed in the area where the children had been left behind. They returned to the area some days later and found several bodies but not those of the children, who remain missing to this day. Their names were later included in the Truth Commission's report and in a 2004 report published by the Office of the Human Rights Ombud.

In 2007, the requesting party filed three habeas corpus actions against members of the Armed Forces' Atlacatl Battalion and the Fifth Infantry Brigade. In rulings issued in 2011 and 2017, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court found that the Rivas children's forced disappearance had been proven and attributed responsibility to state agents. It also ordered information to be gathered about the so-called Operation Invasión Anillo. Following the 2011 ruling, the National Search Commission opened an investigation into the Rivas children's disappearance in 2012. The Attorney General's Office reported having taken some steps to this end but confirmed in 2017 that the case remained under investigation.

In its Merits Report, the IACHR concluded that the circumstances constituted forced disappearance, noting that the Rivas children were taken by members of the Salvadoran Armed Forces in August 1982 and that their whereabouts remain unknown.

The IACHR acknowledged that the State had made some efforts to conduct an investigation into the case, including the establishment of the National Search Commission in 2010 and the adoption of a special prosecutorial policy in 2018. However, it found these efforts insufficient and lacking in diligence. It noted that, despite more than a decade having passed since the investigation was formally opened, no significant progress has been made, and repeated requests for information from various State authorities have been met with refusals. Although judicial and administrative authorities have ordered the reconstruction of records and information, the Ministry of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have done no more than claim that the information in question does not exist, thus failing in their duty to search for the missing children.

The IACHR concluded that the State did not conduct a prompt, thorough, serious, and impartial investigation and created obstacles preventing access to relevant information and records. It further found that the forced disappearance caused the children's parents deep pain, anguish, and uncertainty, which were compounded by the absence of truth and justice.

Based on these findings, the IACHR concluded that the State of El Salvador is responsible for violating the rights to recognition as a person before the law, to life, to personal integrity, to personal liberty, to private and family life, protection of the family, and the rights of the child, as as recognized in articles 3, 4, 5, 7, 11.2, 17, 18, and 19 of the American Convention, to the detriment of José Vicente, Clara Vilma, Juana Noemy, Gladys Suleyma, and Norma Rivas. The IACHR also found the State to be responsible for violations of the rights to judicial guarantees, judicial protection, and access to seek and receive information enshrined in articles 8, 13, and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights, in relation to article 1.1, to the detriment of the five children and Nicolasa Rivas Ángel and Alberto Clímaco Hernández. Lastly, the IACHR found that El Salvador also violated the right to personal integrity contained in article 5 of the American Convention, to the detriment of Nicolasa Rivas Ángel and Alberto Clímaco Hernández.

Consequently, the IACHR has asked the IA Court to order the following measures of reparation:

1. Provide full reparation for the violations listed above, including financial compensation and measures of satisfaction.
2. Offer voluntary psychological support to Nicolasa Rivas Ángel and Alberto Clímaco Hernández, to be agreed on with them.
3. Investigate the whereabouts of the five Rivas children and, if applicable, identify and return their remains to their family.
4. Carry out a prompt, effective, and timely criminal investigation to clarify the facts, identify those responsible, and impose appropriate sanctions.
5. Implement measures of nonrepetition, including reforms and training programs aligned with the Guiding Principles for the Search for Missing Persons.

The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter. The IACHR is made up of seven independent members who are elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 173/25

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