El Rescate Collection, 1977-2016

El Rescate is a non-profit 501(c)(3) founded in 1981 by members of the Santana Chirino Amaya Central American Refugee Committee (SCARC) and the Southern California Ecumenical Council. El Rescate was the first agency in the United States to respond with free legal and social services to the mass influx of refugees fleeing the civil war in El Salvador and has continued providing services for nearly 45 years. The Human Rights Department of El Rescate was established in 1984 to document violations of human rights in El Salvador and disseminate up-to-date information to the U.S. Congress, the media, the faith community, academics and others in the U.S. and Europe. This collection documents the work of the El Rescate organization, including the Human Rights Department within the organization. The materials document the history of the Salvadoran Civil War and post-war period. Notably the collection houses the Human Rights Department's Index to Accountability (Indice Sobre La Responsabilidad) which is a precedent setting relational database that facilitates identification of patterns of human rights violations using two sets of data: one on human rights abuses and one on the command structure of the Salvadoran military.