Resolution 1325 in El Salvador: Shifts from Human to Militarized Security

UN Resolution 1325 directly challenges El Salvador, a country affected in its recent history by war and serious human rights violations, the consequences of which are still felt today. The actions of successive Salvadoran governments regarding Resolution 1325 have varied over time, moving from initial inaction to the promotion of regulatory advances, such as the development of the first National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security in 2017. In recent years, despite updating this plan in 2022, the Bukele administration has focused on reinforcing a militarized security model that entails worrying setbacks in terms of women's rights and is therefore directly contrary to the guiding principles of Resolution 1325. 1[1]

First Country in Central America with a National Action Plan on Resolution 1325

When Resolution 1325 was adopted, El Salvador was still in its first decade of transition following the Peace Accords of 1992. Therefore, despite its relevance, the resolution had little impact in the country, and no significant commitments were made by the traditional right-wing Salvadoran governments that continued to hold power after the signing of the peace accords. 

The first notable effort related to the promotion of Resolution 1325 was made during the government of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which won its first presidential election in 2009 and remained in power for two terms - until 2019. In 2014, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a National Committee for the Implementation of Resolution 1325, consisting of a Board of Directors, a Technical Monitoring Commission, and a Permanent Advisory Council. The next significant step was the development of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security for the period of 2017-2022 2, which made El Salvador the first country in Central America to have a public policy instrument to implement the commitments referred to in this resolution. 

The Action Plan entailed the following elements: First, it explicitly adopted a human security approach from an integrative and multidimensional perspective, emphasizing widespread threats that affect different spheres of life, which endanger the survival, livelihoods, and dignity of individuals and communities and require a rethinking of security. Second, it endorsed all the resolutions of the Women, Peace and Security agenda and other highly relevant international commitments such as Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its recommendation No. 30 on the prevention and protection of violence against women in armed conflict, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará), as well as national legislation on equality and violence against women, to which the women's movement had made a fundamental contribution. Finally, it prioritized three action areas: integrating a gender perspective into the security sector, working towards reparation and compensation for serious human rights violations committed during the conflict, promoting memory exercises that highlight the role of women in the peace process, and implementing measures that address the differentiated impact of social violence and security in public areas on women and girls in the country. 

With regard to the implementation of this plan, two types of actions were most frequently highlighted by the government in various documents presented at international forums 3: first, projects with the police and the Armed Forces of El Salvador (FAES), such as awareness-raising programs about Resolution 1325; training programs for personnel in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations; collaborative actions between the military and the Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women (ISDEMU); and actions with the national civil police to promote the rights of female officers. Secondly, the government emphasized its programs in the areas of health care for female war veterans, psychosocial care for victims of the armed conflict, and other actions recognizing women's contribution to the work of historical memory and the consolidation of the peace process. Although the plan indicates that feminist organizations played an important role in its development, references to these organizations and their positions are scarce or very vague in the public accountability reports on its implementation.

Authoritarian Shift Culminates in State of Emergency

In 2019, with Nayib Bukele's arrival to the presidency, signs of a profound change in political orientation became evident. The new government distanced itself from predecessors, and generated revisionist and even denialist discourses on the Peace Accords. Relations with human rights, women's, environmental, independent journalist, and other organizations became tense, and the first measures to criminalize civil society organizations took hold. In addition, in May 2021, the new legislative assembly, with a majority from the same ruling party, shelved several bills that sought to advance the exercise of rights, such as legal gender recognition for transgender people and the decriminalization of abortion in several cases. Another sign of change was the reversal of steps taken by the previous administration to improve transparency and citizens' access to information. Finally, the government began to significantly increase the visibility of military personnel in public security functions.

These trends have since intensified and worsened. On the one hand, through measures to control the judiciary and, with it, the suppression of the separation of powers. On the other hand, through measures to control the population via the remilitarization of the country 4 and increased repression, the ultimate expression of which is the state of emergency approved in March 2022 and continuously extended since then (Guzmán and Villacorta, 2024). As a result, El Salvador finds itself in a situation of clear democratic regression and widespread serious human rights violations (arbitrary detention, torture, deaths in custody, sexual violence 5, restriction of fundamental freedoms, etc.), affecting thousands of people and numerous social organizations critical of the government. 

Primacy of Militarized Security

In this context, the government presented a second National Action Plan for Resolution 1325 (2022-2024). The Plan was supposed to "update" the previous one so it "is in line with the mandate of President Nayib Bukele's government in this area" 6. Although the new plan maintains references to the human security approach, it understands it as a complement to "state security". 7 In addition, official discourse and policies on security, guided by a growing punitive populism, are a far cry from the human security approach and even further from the vision of security proposed by the feminist movement. In fact, based on research conducted on government measures and their consequences, it is possible to affirm that El Salvador is experiencing "the most serious human rights crisis since the Peace Accords," with a government that "plans, orders, and executes human rights violations in the country under the excuse that in order to achieve security, it is necessary to violate them". 8

Thus, the current situation in El Salvador is marked by a militarized security model that contravenes the Peace Accords and is sustained by the military which, despite being one of the most historically questioned institutions due to their involvement in serious war crimes and crimes against humanity during the armed conflict, continues to gain power in the state structure and in public office under the Bukele government 9. This security model is being imposed in parallel with a roll back of equality policies, women's rights, and gender equity 10. 

At a time when the Bukele government is consolidating its authoritarianism and contributing to the spread of conservative values and religious fundamentalism, women's rights are clearly suffering. The measures taken by this government not only stray from, but are diametrically opposed to the initial intent of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. It is therefore important that international partners that are committed to justice, despite the limitations imposed by the Foreign Agents Act passed in May 2025, continue to creatively support the demands and struggles of Salvadoran civil society organizations which continue to fight for their rights – either from within the country or from exile.