Global Issues

El Salvador

• Rape and other sexual crimes against women widespread.

• 2,193 cases of rape reported in 2010.

• Allegations women raped by male guards in pretrial detention centers.

• Source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.

• Women and girls from rural areas subjected to sex trafficking in urban areas, sometimes by family members.

• Women and children from neighboring countries, such as Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, who migrate to El Salvador for jobs and subsequently forced into prostitution.

• Salvadorans have been subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, the United States, Spain, and Italy.

• Organized criminal groups are reportedly involved in some trafficking.

• 24.2% of women in El Salvador report intimate partner physical violence in their lifetime.

• 11.5% of women report sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

• 13.4% of women report intimate partner and/or non -partner sexual violence in their lifetime.

 

Advocacy:

Orquídeas del Ma (The Sea Orchids) – organized as autonomous sexual workers, to fight injustice and the trampling rights.

 

Sources: UN Women Violence against Women Prevalence Data: Surveys by Country 2011; U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report; U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011; Sex Work Activists, Allies, and You