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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Defending Human Rights Amid Repression: The Escalating Risks for Activists in Venezuela
Tags Share Since the disputed presidential elections on July 28, 2024, Venezuela has experienced a chilling escalation of repression, with human rights defenders (HRDs) at the center of targeted attacks by state actors. What began as a crackdown on protesters evolved into a sustained campaign to silence civil society. The post-election climate has left independent
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Brazil’s Marco Temporal: Indigenous Land Rights at a Crossroads
Tags Share Brazil is in the midst of a high-stakes battle over Indigenous land rights, centered on the controversial concept of the Marco Temporal, or “time frame” thesis. This legal theory would limit Indigenous territorial claims to lands physically occupied – or under legal dispute – on October 5, 1988, the date Brazil’s current Constitution
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100 años de Guillermo Cano Isaza: honrar la memoria, exigir justicia
Tags Share Hoy, 12 de agosto, se cumplen 100 años del natalicio de Guillermo Cano Isaza, periodista y director de El Espectador, durante más de tres décadas, hasta su asesinato el 17 de diciembre de 1986, en Bogotá. Su coraje, su ética y rigor periodístico lo hicieron un referente y ejemplo para generaciones de periodistas.
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100 years of Guillermo Cano Isaza: honoring his memory, demanding justice
Tags Share Today, August 12, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Guillermo Cano Isaza, journalist and editor of El Espectador for more than three decades until his assassination on December 17, 1986, in Bogotá. His courage, ethics, and journalistic rigor made him a role model and example for generations of journalists. Today, we
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Coalition Demands Action as New Evidence Reveals Abuses of Migrants in El Salvador’s CECOT Prison
Tags Share A coalition of organizations filed damning new evidence today in a legal action seeking an emergency order from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, pending since May 9, and originally filed on behalf of all of the at least 288 migrants transferred from the United States to CECOT, a prison in El Salvador.
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The Washington Post: ‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants
Tags Share Deported by the U.S. under President Trump’s mass removal policy, over 250 Venezuelan migrants were secretly sent to El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison where they endured months of abuse, torture, and isolation. In a harrowing investigation by The Washington Post, detainees describe sexual assault, starvation, and beatings inside a facility built for gang members.
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Venezuela: la represión no se detiene y pone en riesgo a quienes defienden derechos humanos
Tags Share Las Américas, 25 de julio de 2025 — Organizaciones internacionales, en representación de un grupo de organizaciones nacionales venezolanas, nos presentamos a una audiencia pública ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) para exponer la agudización de la política de represión y persecución sistemática y sostenida contra personas defensoras de derechos humanos
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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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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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