Bernd H. Niehaus Quesada (born 14 April 1941) [1] is the Costa Rican ambassador to Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic (2002-).[ citation needed ] He speaks Spanish, German, French and English.[ citation needed ]
He obtained a PhD (summa cum laude) in International Law from the University of Strasbourg (France).[ citation needed ] He completed human rights studies at the René Cassin Institute (France). He earned an Honoris Causae Doctorate from the Universidad Central del Este (Dominican Republic). He is an attorney and notary public with a degree from the University of Costa Rica. He studied economics and political science in Bonn, Hamburg and Koln Universities. His family is partly German, and is a citizen of both countries.
He joined the Costa Rican Bar Association in 1974. He served as professor of public international law at the University of Costa Rica.
Niehaus Quesada was Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Government of Costa Rica (1980–1982 and 1990–1994). [2] He served as Costa Rican ambassador to the United Nations Organization (1998–2002). [3] In 1994 he was a candidate for the general secretariat of the Organization of American States. [4]
He became a member of the International Law Commission in 2002.[ citation needed ]
Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in the Central American region of North America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as maritime border with Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around five million in a land area of nearly 51,180 km2 (19,760 sq mi). An estimated 352,381 people live in the capital and largest city, San José, with around two million people in the surrounding metropolitan area.
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría is a Costa Rican economist, lawyer, businessman and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 1998 to 2002. He was minister of planning from 1968 to 1970 and minister of the presidency in 1970 during the administration of Jose Joaquin Trejos Fernandez ; member of the board of the Costa Rican Central Bank from 1966 to 1969; congressman from 1990 to 1993, serving as president of the Legislative Assembly during the 1991 to 1992 period; and was elected Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) in 2004. He voluntarily stepped down from this post to return to his country to face allegations of financial wrongdoing during his presidential tenure in Costa Rica. On April 27 of 2011 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but this ruling was later reversed in a December 2012 decision by an appeals court, which found him innocent of all charges.
José María Figueres Olsen is a Costa Rican businessman and politician, who served as President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. He also ran for president in the 2022 presidential election but was defeated by Rodrigo Chaves.
The University of Costa Rica is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro Montes de Oca, in the province of San José. It is the oldest and largest institution of higher learning in Costa Rica, originally established as the Universidad de Santo Tomás in 1843. Approximately 45,000 students attend UCR throughout the year.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Costa Rica have evolved significantly in the past decades. Same-sex sexual relations have been legal since 1971. In January 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights made mandatory the approbation of same-sex marriage, adoption for same-sex couples and the removal of people's sex from all Costa Rican ID cards issued since October 2018. The Costa Rican Government announced that it would apply the rulings in the following months. In August 2018, the Costa Rican Supreme Court ruled against the country's same-sex marriage ban, and gave the Legislative Assembly 18 months to reform the law accordingly, otherwise the ban would be abolished automatically. Same-sex marriage became legal on 26 May 2020.
Quesada is a district of the San Carlos canton, in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. It is the head city of the canton of San Carlos. Although Ciudad Quesada is the official name, it is commonly referred to by the area name of San Carlos. Ciudad Quesada is also the most populous city in the canton of San Carlos.
Relations between Costa Rica and the United States have been historically close; nevertheless there were instances in history where the US and Costa Rica disagreed. One such example might be the case of Freebooter William Walker. Nevertheless, considering that Costa Rica generally supports the U.S. in international fora, especially in the areas of democracy and human rights, modern day relations are very strong.
Alberto Cañas Escalante was a politician, writer, intellectual, public servant, and journalist from San José, Costa Rica. He is known as one of the most important figures in the cultural, political, and social life of Costa Rica during the latter half of the twentieth century. The National Library System of Costa Rica credits Cañas with more than 4,773 publications as of 2005.
Laura Chinchilla Miranda is a Costa Rican political scientist and politician who served as President of Costa Rica from 2010 to 2014. She was one of Óscar Arias Sánchez's two Vice-Presidents and his administration's Minister of Justice. She was the governing PLN candidate for president in the 2010 general election, where she won with 46.76% of the vote on 7 February. She was the eighth woman president of a Latin American country and the first and so far only woman to become President of Costa Rica. She was sworn in as President of Costa Rica on 8 May 2010.
Manuel María de Peralta y Alfaro was a Costa Rican diplomat and historian. De Peralta y Alfaro was born in Taras, Cartago, Costa Rica, on July 4, 1847. He was the only Costa Rican to ever be given the designation of "Hero of the Motherland" twice.
Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia was a Costa Rican medical doctor and politician, who served as President from 1940 to 1944.
Costa Rica became a member of the United Nations on November 2, 1945.
Ambassador Luis Fernando Carrera Castro is a Guatemalan economist, political analyst and diplomat. He served as Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the United Nations during the presidency of Otto Perez Molina. Before that, he served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, during the same administration. He is a Guatemalan economist, specializing in fiscal policies, and also a political analyst. He obtained his bachelor's degree in economics from the National University of Costa Rica in 1990. Then, he obtained an M. Phil. in Economics and Politics of Development, at the University of Cambridge in 1992.
The nations of Costa Rica and Mexico established diplomatic relations 1838. Both nations are members of the Association of Caribbean States, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the United Nations.
Ángela Acuña Braun, also known as Ángela Acuña de Chacón,, a Costa Rican lawyer, women's rights pioneer and ambassador, was the first woman to graduate as a lawyer in Central America. Orphaned at the age of 12, she was raised by her maternal aunt and uncle, attending elementary school and beginning high school in Costa Rica. She continued her education in France and England, gaining exposure to the ideas of women's rights. Returning to Costa Rica in 1912, she published articles in support of women's equality. She attended the boys' lyceum or high school where she passed the bachillerato, a prerequisite for entering law school. She embarked on law studies in 1913, leading to a bachelor's degree in 1916. As women were barred from entering the profession, Acuña immediately presented a reform to the civil code allowing this, which was adopted.
Estela Quesada (1924–2011) was a Costa Rican teacher, lawyer and politician. She was one of the first three women elected to the Costa Rican legislature in the first election after women attained enfranchisement. She was the first woman to hold a cabinet-level position in Costa Rica as Minister of Education and was later the first woman to serve as minister of Labor and Social Security. She was inducted into the National Women's Institute Gallery as an Outstanding Woman of Costa Rica in 2009.
Carlos Andrés Alvarado Quesada is a Costa Rican politician, writer, journalist, and political scientist who served as the 48th president of Costa Rica from 8 May 2018 to 8 May 2022. A member of the Citizens' Action Party (PAC), Alvarado previously served as Minister of Labor and Social Security during the presidency of Luis Guillermo Solís.
Gonzalo Justo Facio Segreda was a Costa Rican lawyer, politician, and diplomat.
The history of the Costa Rican legislature is long and starts from even before its formal independence from the Spanish Empire. Costa Rica is one of the world's oldest democracies, thus, its parliamentary history dates back several centuries.
Costa Rican nationality law is regulated by the Options and Naturalizations Act, which was originally named the Immigration and Naturalization Act and established under the 1949 Constitution. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a citizen of Costa Rica. The legal means to acquire nationality and formal membership in a nation differ from the relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Costa Rican nationality is typically obtained either on the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Costa Rica; or under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth abroad to at least one parent with Costa Rican nationality. It can also be granted to a permanent resident who has lived in Costa Rica for a given period of time through naturalization.