Civil society concerned over presidential candidate's position on LGBTI rights

Association

Frente por los Derechos Igualitarios, a local LGBTI rights organisation, reported 27 attacks against LGBTI people taking place since 4th February, when the country held its first round of presidential elections. The organisation claims that the alarming number of attacks against members of the LGBTI community is connected to the electoral environment in which one candidate in particular, Fabricio Alvarado, a conservative evangelical from Partido de Restaruación Nacional (National Restoration Party), campaigned against the approach to sex education in public schools. The candidate won the first round and he will face Carlos Alvarado from the governing Citizen Action Party in the second-round on 1st April 2018. 

Fabricio Alvarado's possible election has raised concerns among civil society, especially given his denouncing of the American Convention on Human Rights and his proposal to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. His proposal stems from a Court recommendation that the Costa Rican government guarantee equal rights for same-sex couples. 

Peaceful Assembly

As reported before on the Monitor, a group of workers at a pineapple plantation had been protesting unjustified dismissals but later reached an agreement with the company to address the issue. The company, however, recently decided to file a case against its workers, claiming that their strike was illegal. On 1st February, a civil court dismissed the company’s claims, declaring that the lawsuit was no longer actual and relevant as the strike had taken place in January.