El Salvador published a new law permitting authorities to sentence minors as young as 12 to life imprisonment for severe crimes including homicide, terrorism, and rape. The law is slated to take effect on April 26, 2026.

A constitutional amendment authorizing life sentences for minors was approved in March 2026, championed by President Nayib Bukele. The legislation lifts certain legal protections for youth offenders but allows periodic sentence reviews and the possibility of supervised release. El Salvador's legislative assembly is overwhelmingly controlled by the Nuevas Ideas party.

On social media in March 2026, Bukele denounced opponents of the constitutional amendment as lenient toward violent crime. In a separate statement, he said, "At least 8,000 detainees were innocent."

UNICEF voiced deep concern over the prospect that children could be sentenced to life behind bars. The agency warned that imprisonment could result in severe, long-term consequences for child and adolescent development and added that life sentences and excessively long detention measures on children and adolescents were unlikely to reduce crime overall. "These minimum standards require that children in conflict with the law be treated in a manner that prioritizes their rehabilitation and reintegration," the agency said in a statement.

The law was published as El Salvador continues to operate under a state of emergency in place since March 2022. The emergency declaration, initially designed to last 30 days, has been renewed dozens of times, suspending certain civil liberties in favor of greater police and military powers. The Salvadoran government has carried out a campaign of mass arrest and imprisonment under the emergency, with more than 90,000 people imprisoned. Human Rights Watch estimates that nearly 1.9 percent of El Salvador's population is behind bars. Some detainees are held without charges.

The International Group of Experts for the Investigation of Human Rights Violations under the State of Emergency in El Salvador published its final report in March 2026. The report alleged that crimes against humanity had been committed over the previous four years. "The figures speak for themselves. These are not isolated cases, but a policy in which crimes are committed on a large scale and in a systematic manner," Jose Guevara, a member of the expert group, said.