El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has enacted sweeping legal reforms allowing life imprisonment for minors as young as 12 convicted of serious crimes such as homicide, terrorism and rape, according to the country’s official gazette.
The measures, published on Tuesday and scheduled to take effect April 26, follow a constitutional amendment approved in March by the government-controlled Congress.
The changes eliminate special legal procedures previously available to offenders aged 12 to 18, though they include provisions for periodic sentence reviews and potential supervised release. The constitutional amendment came days after an international legal panel reported "reasonable grounds" to suggest El Salvador has committed crimes against humanity during a years-long state of emergency.
The United Nations human rights office criticized the reforms for violating children's rights. Bukele defended the measures, saying the previous legal framework granted impunity to young criminals.
