In this conversation, Ovidio Mauricio and Alejandro Díaz, who will be receiving the 47th annual Letelier-Moffitt Rights Award from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, will share their experiences as leaders of the legal organization Tutela Legal María Julia Hernández. Tutela works for justice for the families of people deprived of liberty in the context of the "state of exception" promoted by President Nayib Bukele.

We will also have the presence of Vidalina Morales, president of the Association for Economic and Social Development of El Salvador, who is leading efforts to have the charges against 5 Salvadoran water defenders dropped.

These types of spaces are of great value for the WCL Academy of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law because they allow the discussion of situations that may be contrary to international human rights standards, in the context of authoritarianism.

Moderator: Robert K Goldman, Louis C James Scholar and Professor of Law at WCL, Chair of the International Commission of Jurists, former Chair of the IACHR, and former UN Independent Expert on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism.

Sponsored by: American University Washington College of Law, Human Rights Center, the Academy on Human Rights; and The Institute for Policy Studies. 

More information about Tutela Legal: Tutela Legal Maria was formed following the decision in 2013 by the Archbishopric of San Salvador to abruptly close the Archdiocesan Office of Legal Assistance formed in the time of Monsignor Romero, and to block the files of 80% of the victims of the war. The families of the victims considered the files to be a treasure because in many cases they are the only proof of the disappearances or murders of their relatives. Currently, Tutela works in coordination with the Human Rights Institute of the Catholic University UCA, the episcopacy-supported CRISTOSAL, and the Foundation for the Application of Law (FESPAD), among others, in the defense of human rights. Together they have presented more than 3,000 Habeas Corpus petitions from citizens and community leaders unjustly detained, without obtaining a response from the Supreme Court. Tutela is named after María Julia Hernández, an international human rights defender who worked with Monsignor Óscar Romero.