Latin America
We work alongside local organizations and human rights defenders to defend civic space and combat violence, repression, and discrimination in the region. Through strategic litigation and legal advocacy before the Inter-American Human Rights system and the United Nations, we work toward protecting human rights, seeking truth, justice, and redress for victims of human rights violations. From combating gender-based violence in Central America, historic racism against Dominicans of Haitian Descent, and systematic repression against critics in Venezuela and Guatemala to protecting freedom of the press in Colombia and Brazil, our mission is to create a region where justice, dignity, and equality prevail for all.
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El Salvador: Alto a la Criminalización de Personas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos y al Desmantelamiento del Estado de Derecho
Tags Share Las organizaciones firmantes expresamos nuestra profunda preocupación ante el creciente uso del derecho penal sin las garantías del debido proceso, el acoso, estigmatización y la persecución que ejercen las autoridades salvadoreñas contra personas defensoras de derechos humanos, líderes comunitarios, activistas ambientales, profesores universitarios abogados, periodistas y otras voces críticas hacia el poder. Destacados…
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El Salvador: Stop the Criminalization of Human Rights Defenders and the Dismantling of the Rule of Law
Tags Share We, the undersigned organizations, express our deep concern over the increasing use of criminal law without due process guarantees, the harassment, the stigmatization, and the persecution by Salvadoran authorities against human rights defenders, community leaders, environmental activists, university professors, lawyers, journalists, and other voices critical of the government. Prominent journalists, activists, and lawyers,…
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Human Rights Groups Urge UN to Intervene on Behalf of Migrants Detained in Notorious Salvadoran Prison
Tags Share Washington, D.C., June 18, 2025 – Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Boston University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic, the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and the Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights submitted a report to the United Nations highlighting egregious human rights violations for hundreds of…
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This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights
Tags Share Masked ICE Agents Detain 9-Month-Pregnant U.S Citizen in L.A. Crackdown A U.S. citizen in her ninth month of pregnancy was hospitalized with sharp stomach pains after being arrested — and later released — by ICE agents who accused her of obstructing the arrest of her undocumented husband. ICE has been conducting large-scale raids and arrests…
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El Salvador: New Foreign Agents Law Threatens Rights and Freedoms of Civil Society Organizations and the Media
Tags Share In the context of serious human rights setbacks, the weakening of the rule of law, and the dismantling of institutional controls in El Salvador, the Legislative Assembly, controlled largely by President Bukele’s New Ideas party, passed a Foreign Agents Law without public debate. The Law purports to promote “transparency” on the influence of…
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El Salvador: La nueva Ley de Agentes Extranjeros amenaza los derechos y libertades de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y los medios de comunicación
Tags Share En el contexto del grave retroceso en materia de derechos humanos, del debilitamiento del Estado de derecho y del desmantelamiento de los controles institucionales en El Salvador, la Asamblea Legislativa, controlada en gran medida por el partido Nuevas Ideas del presidente Bukele, aprobó una Ley de Agentes Extranjeros sin debate público. La ley…
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Hundreds Forcibly Disappeared to El Salvadoran Mega-Prison
Four groups, including RFK Human Rights, filed a request seeking precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) against El Salvador for the unlawful detention of hundreds of individuals forcibly and illegally transferred from the United States in recent months.
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US brokers secret torture deal with El Salvador: report to UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants
On February 3, 2025, President Nayib Bukele publicly announced that El Salvador had offered to detain “criminals” sent from the US, including both migrant deportees and US citizens, in exchange for a fee.
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Devdiscourse: Coalition Challenges US-El Salvador Detainee Deal in Court
Tags Share A coalition of immigrant rights groups including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s agreement to house detainees in an El Salvadorian prison. The suit argues that the deal violates the U.S. Constitution by preventing detainees from accessing U.S. courts and due process. Concerns are raised over…
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Courthouse News Services: State Department faces lawsuit over migrant detention agreement with El Salvador
Tags Share “Ten of our clients were kidnapped from U.S. streets and locked away in one of the world’s most notorious blackhole prisons in a scheme to use U.S. taxpayer dollars for enforced disappearances, incommunicado detention and torture.” Quoted in Courthouse News Service, our vice president of U.S. Advocacy and Litigation Anthony Enriquez describes RFK…
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The Hill: State Department sued over Trump deal to house migrants in El Salvador prison
Tags Share RFK Human Rights and other immigrant advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against the State Department over a controversial Trump administration deal that pays El Salvador to house deported migrants in a new prison facility. The lawsuit argues that the agreement is not only a violation of U.S. asylum laws but also illegal…
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AP News: Immigrant rights groups sue to invalidate Trump administration’s El Salvador prison deal
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, along with other immigrant rights groups, has filed a lawsuit to invalidate the Trump administration’s controversial deal with El Salvador, which allows the transfer of deported individuals to a new prison facility in the country. The groups argue that the agreement violates U.S. asylum laws and international human…
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