result in human rights violations, according to media reports. women were killed; the equivalent figure for 2015 was 249, according to official records. EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE AND EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Members of the security forces were accused of human rights violations during operations to combat organized crime. In April, the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman reported that both the police and the military had used excessive force and committed extrajudicial killings while carrying out two security operations in 2015. The Ombudsman was also reported in the press as stating that other similar cases were under investigation. WOMEN’S RIGHTS Threats to women’s rights persisted. The total ban on abortion remained in place even for cases of rape or where there is a risk to the life of the woman. In May, María Teresa Rivera was released after spending four years in prison, convicted of aggravated homicide after having a miscarriage. The judge released María Teresa Rivera after reviewing her sentence and ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges against her.1 More than 20 women remained in prison serving lengthy sentences after suffering pregnancy-related complications or obstetric emergencies. In July, a new proposal filed by a group of parliamentarians from the main opposition party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), sought to increase prison terms from a maximum of eight years to up to a maximum of 50 years for having an abortion. The reform had not been approved by the end of the year.2 In October, parliamentarians belonging to the ruling Farabundo Martί National Liberation Front (FMLN) put forward a proposal to decriminalize abortion in four circumstances, including when a woman’s life is at risk or when the pregnancy is a consequence of rape. The proposal remained pending at the end of the year. There were high levels of gender-based violence. In the period January to July, 338 Amnesty International Report 2016/17 In August, human rights defender Sonia Sánchez Pérez was acquitted of all charges. Her trial resulted from a lawsuit filed by a private company accusing her of slander and defamation because of her statements about the environmental impact of the company’s infrastructure project on her community. She had also denounced threats against her by private security personnel. The company filed an appeal against the decision. MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Many of those who sought to leave the country were fleeing the effects of the increasing control of criminal gangs over areas of the country and the impact this had on the rights to life, physical integrity, education and freedom of movement of local populations. LGBTI people were frequently targeted for abuse, intimidation and violence because of their sexual orientation and/or their gender identity. In particular, transgender women, who often face greater obstacles in accessing justice because of discrimination, were subjected to violence and extortion by gangs. Unable to seek protection or justice, some LGBTI people fled the country as the only way to escape the violence. Deportations of Salvadorans, especially from Mexico, increased. However, El Salvador did not put in place an effective protocol or mechanism to identify and protect those who were forcibly returned to the communities from which they had fled.3 IMPUNITY El Salvador acceded to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in March. In June, a monitoring compliance hearing relating to two cases of enforced disappearance committed during the armed conflict took place before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In September, the Court rendered a judgment in one of the cases, Contreras et al v El Salvador, and 151