page_title: Truth Commission for El Salvador
section_title: Impact and Criticisms
hierarchical_section_title: Truth Commission for El Salvador / The Final Report / Impact and Criticisms
caption_attribution_description: Español: Monumento a La Constitución
context_page_description: The Truth Commission for El Salvador was a restorative justice truth commission approved by the United Nations to investigate the grave wrongdoings that occurred throughout the country's twelve year civil war. It is estimated that 1.4 percent of the Salvadoran population was killed during the war. The commission operated from July 1992 until March 1993, when its findings were published in the final report, From Madness to Hope. The eight-month period heard from over 2,000 witness testimonies and compiled information from an additional 20,000 witness statements.
  In December 1991, preliminary talks began between the Salvadoran government and the leftist guerrilla militia, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, with UN secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar overseeing the negotiations. The agreement was finalized and signed by both parties on 16 January 1992, at what is known as the Chapultepec Peace Agreements.
  Javier Pérez de Cuéllar appointed three lead commissioners, with the agreement of both the Salvadoran government and the FMLN, to head the investigation.
context_section_description: With the release of From Madness to Hope in March 1993, human rights advocates in El Salvador and the United States accepted and applauded the commission for its analysis of the atrocities, and for its recommendations. However it was criticized for failing to scrutinize the involvement of the United States, as well as the activity of Salvadoran death squads. The high commander of the Salvadoran military publicly responded to the report on national television, through a statement read by the defense minister. The statement claimed that the report was "unfair, incomplete, illegal, unethical, biased, and insolent." Furthermore, the Salvadoran president, Alfredo Cristiani, claimed that the report did not fulfill the desires of the Salvadoran people who wanted to "forget this painful past."
  Many of the commission's recommendations were not accepted or implemented by the government. Approximately 200 senior members of the military were removed from their positions; they retired with full honours and benefits. In 1996, a new Criminal Procedure Code was introduced into the judicial system in accordance with the commission's recommendation, one of the few recommendations implemented. On 20 March 1993, five days after the release of the UN commission's report, the government passed a blanket amnesty law, modifying an amnesty law passed on 23 January 1992, a week after the signing of the peace agreement ending the civil war. To date, the government has yet to adopt the recommendation to award reparations to victims or survivors.
  In 2010, President Mauricio Funes established special commissions to address reparations, which have yet to result in the payment of reparations. Funes is the first president to officially apologize and acknowledge the abuses of the civil war.  In 2016, the El Salvador Supreme Court ruled that the amnesty law was unconstitutional and that the El Salvador government could prosecute war criminals.
caption: Monumento a la Constitución located in San Salvador, erected in 1992 to symbolize peace.
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