its internal regulations, indicating the situations in which the imposition of pretrial detention
is appropriate, and provided information on the progress achieved regarding other
precautionary measures that did not require deprivation of liberty, such as electronic
monitoring.
290. In this case, the Court has verified that the imposition of pretrial detention in the
criminal proceedings against Manuela was based on a regulation that contravened the
American Convention (supra paras. 103 to 112). The Court notes that the current Salvadoran
Code of Criminal Procedure regulates the use of pretrial detention in the same way. 449
Therefore, the Court considers that the State, within two years, should amend its procedural
legislation in order to make it compatible with the standards for pretrial detention developed
in the Court’s case law, as established in paragraphs 99 to 112 of this judgment.
D.3 Awareness-raising and training for public officials
291. The Commission asked the Court to order the State to “conduct proper training of
public defenders, prosecutors, judges, and other judicial officials aimed at eliminating the use
of discriminatory stereotypes on the role of women, taking into account their negative impact
on criminal investigations and the assessment of evidence, as well as on criminal responsibility
in judicial decisions” and to “review and adjust discriminatory institutional practices in criminal
investigations and within the healthcare sector.” It also asked that the State reinforce “the
full effectiveness of public defense, particularly in cases involving the possible imposition of
severe punishments, including disciplinary measures ensuring accountability for acts or
omissions that constitute manifest negligence.”
292. The representatives asked that the State “provide training to eliminate the use of
discriminatory stereotypes concerning the role of women taking into account their negative
impact in criminal investigations and in the assessment of evidence and criminal responsibility
in judicial decisions,” and also “permanent education and training programs for all
professionals who work in health institutions, the police and the judiciary, on the appropriate
treatment of obstetric emergencies, professional secrecy, pregnancy, gender, human rights,
and the prevention of torture.” They asked that this training be provided: “(i) in the university
careers of medicine, nursing, law, psychology and social work; (ii) to the health personnel
throughout the country; (iii) to forensic physicians, and (iv) to agents of justice, including
public defenders, through the corresponding judicial academy.” Similarly, they asked the
Court to order the State “to reinforce the full effectiveness of public defenders, particularly in
cases that involve the possible imposition of severe punishments, including disciplinary
measures ensuring accountability for acts or omissions that constitute manifest negligence.”
293. The State indicated its intention of advancing towards “measures relating to the
permanent education and training of public officials and employees.” It also advised that it
had “developed a permanent training program to eliminate discriminatory stereotypes
concerning the role of women addressed, in particular, at enhancing the knowledge,
capabilities and competences of public servants, including public defenders, prosecutors,
judges and other judicial officials, as well as of auxiliary organs of the administration of
justice.” Thus, for example, the State was working “on the implementation of specialized
technical training for the exercise of a professional defense in cases of the interruption of the
gestation of the fetus”; it was developing “a specialized training program on human rights,
addressed, above all, at judges and judicial agents,” and the Prosecutor General had ordered
the inclusion or strengthening of components in the training program for auxiliary prosecutors
on “the elimination of discriminatory stereotypes concerning the role of women and their
Cf. Legislative Assembly of the Republic of El Salvador. Code of Criminal Procedure, Decree Law No. 733,
articles 329 and 331.
449
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