On this page, you will find:
To find organisations working for LGBTQI+ rights, visit our El Salvador LGBTQI+ Resources page.
For El Salvador country of origin information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries, and relevant documents visit our El Salvador COI page.
Refugee protection
Click here to see the numbers and origins of refugees hosted by El Salvador.
The following sections contain information on the most important international treaties and agreements of which El Salvador is signatory, as well as national legislation relevant to the protection of refugees.
El Salvador has been a state party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol since 1983.
El Salvador also acceded to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons in 2015. However, the country is not party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
El Salvador adopted their National Refugee Law in 2002 and its regulatory framework in 2005.
Both legal instruments together with the Migration Law make up El Salvador’s national legal framework for refugees.
Legal aid organisations
Website
Address: Colonia Médica, Boulevard Dr. Héctor Silva Romero #144, Casa Morada de la Mujer San Salvador, El Salvador
Tel: +503 22 75/ 75 63
Help line: +503 22 26/ 54 66
Email: cemujer@cemujer.com
CEMUJER is an organisation that contributes towards the promotion of the human rights of women, children and adolescents. CEMUJER has a multidisciplinary team that provides guidance and advice to those women and children that denounce violence, with the aim of reducing violence against women and children, in a permanent search for real gender equality. CEMUJER provides legal assistance and psychological support to women refugees and asylum seekers that have suffered gender violence and also has helped women that have suffered gender violence in El Salvador and are in need to seek asylum in other countries.
CEMUJER es una organización que contribuye a la promoción de los derechos humanos de las mujeres, niños y adolecentes. CEMUJER cuenta con un equipo multi/pluridisciplinario que brinda orientación y asesoría a aquellas mujeres, niños y niñas que denuncian violencia, a fin de contribuir a la disminución de la violencia contra las mujeres, niños y niñas, en una búsqueda permanente por contribuir a la igualdad real entre los géneros. CEMUJER otorga asesoría legal y apoyo sicológico a mujeres que han sufrido violencia de género que son refugiadas o solicitantes de asilo en El Salvador como también mujeres que están en El Salvador y necesitan solicitar asilo en otros países.
Website
Address: Avenida Las Magnolias, Calle Las Flores 200 metros, al sur de DIDEA, San Miguel, El Salvador
Tel: 2545-6506
Contact Person: Lic. Krissia Morena Aguirre Rosa
Email: krismar1979@ugb.edu.sv
The Clinica de Asistencia legal provides free legal advice and support to those that have economic dificulties, whether they are nationals, foreign migrants or refugees. Also, the facultad de Ciencias Juridicas provides support to migrants regarding their labour rights.
Address: Oficina de Derechos Humanos y Asistencia Legal, Av. Sierra Nevada, #914 B, Col. Miramonte, S.S.
Tel: +503 22 61 18 58 or +503 22 60 04 22 or +503 22 60 15 41
Email: pareselsalvador@yahoo.com
The Iglesia Episcopal Anglicana de El Salvador, is a UNHCR partner organisation. Its aim is to support all asylum seekers in El Salvador as well as those that already have refugee status. We provide legal aid to all asylum seekers and refugees free of charge.
Address: (Mexico) Blvd. Durango 300-A, Fracc. Lomas del Guadiana Durango. Dgo. 34110 / (USA) 750 Otay Lakes Road, Suite 2111 Chula Vista, CA. 91910
Tel: (USA) +1 (619) 888 8745 / (MEX) +52 (618) 364 4213 (only Whatsapp)
Email: aimberton@hotmail.com
Contact Person: Alberto Imberton
- Provide relevant and up-to-date information educational and informative;
- Actively participate in the discussion and drafting of laws and immigration policies;
- Legal advice and legal representation for immigrants in immigration processes.
Organisations providing other support to refugees
ALSARE helps returned Salvadoran migrants to reintegrate into society with community-based support.
Website
Address: 12 Calle Poniente #2413, Colonia Flor Blanca. San Salvador, El Salvador. (100 mts. from FUDEM)
Tel: (503) 2564 5029 , (503) 2508 6880
COMCAVIS Trans is formed by trans women with HIV, committed to universal access to HIV prevention and care, through communication and training; policy and advocacy; and promotion, defense, and demand respect for human rights of transgender people.
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Address: Casa No. 5441, Tercera Calle Poniente hoy Calle Schafik Handal, Paisaje Jorge Lardé
Colonia Escalón, San Salvador, El Salvador
Email: administracion@cristosal.org
Foundation Cristosal is a human rights and community development faith-based non-profit based in San Salvador, El Salvador. Their programmes are grounded in a human rights-based approach, which understands poverty not as an accidental condition, but rather the product of social structures that exclude poor and marginalized populations from the protection of their basic rights. Cristosal’s Human Rights Program specializes in providing legal representation and assistance to victims forcibly displaced by violence through a partnership agreement with the Office of the Salvadoran Ombudsman for Human Rights. They are also members of the organizational Roundtable Against Forced Displacement, which advocates for the recognition of the phenomenon of forced displacement and the need to build national and regional capacities for the protection of victims forcibly displaced by violence.
Fundación Cristosal es una organización sin fines de lucro de derechos humanos basada en la fé, localizada en San Salvador, El Salvador. Sus programas están basadas en un enfoque de derechos humanos, lo cual entiende la pobreza no como una condición accidental, sino el producto de estructuras sociales que excluyen los pobres y poblaciones marginadas de la protección de sus derechos básicos. Su programa de Derechos Humanos especializa en proveer representación legal y asistencia a las víctimas desplazadas forzosamente por violencia por un acuerdo con el Procurador para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos en El Salvador (PDDH). También Cristosal es miembro de la mesa de sociedad civil contra desplazamiento forzado, que hace incidencia para el reconocimiento por parte del estado salvadoreño del fenómeno de desplazamiento forzado, y la necesidad de construir capacidades al nivel nacional y regional para la protección de víctimas desplazadas forzosamente por violencia.
Website
Address: Reparto santa alegría, calle L-B no 7, Ciudad delgado, San martín
Tel: (503) 2536 – 3500
FUNDASAL works to eradicate and humanize the outrageous environments and homes in which impoverished families live in El Salvador, so that they live more with dignity, with security, hope and in community coexistence.
Website
Address: Final 13 AV nte pje 2 pte n37 Colonia Santa Rosa
Tel: 2260-8001
Defends the rights of economic migrants who work outside El Salvador, and monitors human rights issues affecting migrants inside and outside El Salvador.
Website
Address: Colonia Delicias del Norte, Pasaje Cantizano #4-A, Mexicans, San Salvador.
Tel: (503) 2511-9300
Email: comunicaciones.sspas@gmail.com
The SSPAS Human Rights Program constitutes the institution’s strategy regarding political positioning in the face of the human rights situation in the country. The Program originates from the Rufina Amaya Human Rights Observatory, formed in March 2013, which aimed to address cases of alleged human rights violations by the State security forces, generating periodic reports that would allow these events to be characterized. In 2014, the SSPAS created the Human Rights Area, integrating the Observatory into it, in order to expand its scope of work, which begins to focus on the care of victims, the promotion of human rights and the generation of reports on the human rights situation.
Website
Email: info@tuteladh.org
Tutela de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de San Salvador promotes the defense and promotion of the fundamental rights of the human person by promoting training processes, legal, training and historical memory processes, in order to contribute to the fulfillment of the human rights of Salvadorans, especially the most vulnerable sectors.
El Salvador LGBTQI+ Resources
Find organisations working for refugee LGBTQI+ rights in El Salvador.
El Salvador COI
Find El Salvador Country of Origin information (COI) experts, reports, commentaries, and relevant documents.
We are always looking to expand the resources on our platform. If you know about relevant resources, or you are aware of organisations and/or individuals to include in our directories, please get in touch.
Last updated March 2024