Cristosal

Cristosal is a human rights organisation founded in El Salvador in 2000. For over 25 years, the organisation has supported victims of serious human rights violations in contexts of forced displacement, state repression, and political persecution. Cristosal promotes access to justice and truth in Central America, and defends civic space and the rule of law. After suspending its operations in El Salvador in July 2025 due to escalating repression, it currently conducts its human rights work from its offices in Guatemala and Honduras.

Cristosal’s work includes legal defence, forensic documentation, psychosocial support, investigation, and protection systems. Cristosal is recognised for its technical rigour in compiling robust documentation, which forms the basis of complaints, litigation, and advocacy before national and international human rights bodies.

Among the most significant cases it supports is that of the El Mozote massacre, one of the most emblematic crimes against humanity in Latin America, perpetrated in El Salvador in the 1980s by senior officers of the Salvadoran Army, and for which justice is still being sought decades later.

Throughout its history, Cristosal has faced legal and administrative harassment, espionage, surveillance of its activities and staff homes, as well as systematic smear campaigns. This situation worsened in 2025 with the arbitrary detention of Ruth López, head of its Anti-Corruption Unit, as part of a sustained pattern of criminalisation against human rights defenders and civil society organisations in El Salvador. In 2025, the passing of the Foreign Agents Act in El Salvador and the intensifying persecution of human rights defenders forced the organisation to continue its work from Guatemala and Honduras.

In this context, Cristosal received the William D. Zabel Award in October of 2025, granted by Human Rights First in recognition of its work defending human rights in Central America and its history of solidarity with victims.