Cristosal

Cristosal is a human rights organization working to advance human rights in Central America through rights-based research, learning, and programing. We come alongside victims of violence to provide protection when they need it most, repair the lingering effects of human rights violations, and build human rights environments to create conditions where peace is possible.

Cristosal operates throughout the Northern Triangle of Central America. In addition to El Salvador, we work in Guatemala and Honduras to:
-Monitor forced displacement by violence
-Pilot models for humanitarian, psychosocial, and legal assistance to victims of human rights violations
-Pilot models for sustainable, community-based victim protection and assistance

Led by accomplished and innovative Program Coordinators, Cristosal works within four fields: Victim Advocacy, Strategic Litigation, Community Development, Research and Learning.

Victim Advocacy: We provided humanitarian, legal, and/or psychosocial assistance to victims of violence. Our protection and assistance programs are part of our strategy to build replicable models of victim protection. In 2017, Cristosal provided assistance to 638 victims.

Strategic Litigation: Our strategic litigation program uses lawsuits to advance processes of legal, social, or other human rights change that goes beyond the immediate goals of the complainant. Currently, Cristosal is supporting the prosecution of the 1981 El Mozote massacre, one of the largest unprosecuted war crimes in the world, and the 1982 El Calabozo massacre.

Community Development: This program makes it possible for families forcibly displaced by violence to reclaim their life plan in safe communities. We also work to mitigate the deepest roots of forced displacement by building environments in which all people can exercise their human rights.

Research and Learning: The Cristosal Center for Research and Learning promotes learning and publishes knowledge on human development and security within a human rights framework. Our goal is to build meaningful solutions by identifying and elevating the voices of actors from a number of vulnerable groups, including prisoners, members of the LGBT community, and Central American asylum-seekers.

We also host intercultural Global School seminars in El Salvador. The Global School creates opportunities for community, religious, student and professional leaders from different cultural backgrounds to engage with one another and learn together how to promote and defend human rights through the lens of Salvadoran experience. We also host intercultural Global School seminars in El Salvador. The Global School creates opportunities for community, religious, student and professional leaders from different cultural backgrounds to engage with one another and learn together how to promote and defend human rights through the lens of Salvadoran experience.

In 2017 alone:
Cristosal assisted 638 victims of violence. 5% of whom were fleeing violence caused by military or police, and 57% of whom were 25 years old or younger.

Cristosal's Strategic Litigation (one of the only of its kind in the region) filed 4 supreme court cases on behalf of families displaced by violence, and made strides in the historic El Mozote trial - the first war crime to be tried in Salvadoran courts.

Cristosal's Community Development program reintegrated 20 internally displaced families into Salvadoran communities, and continued working with 10 communities to build local victim protection and assistance programs.

Cristosal's Program for Research and Learning hosted 11 week-long participative learning Global School seminars in El Salvador. The program graduated 84 North American Alumni and 31 Salvadoran Alumni.