The politics of Costa Rica take place in a framework of a presidential,representative democratic republic,with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and their cabinet,and the President of Costa Rica is both the head of state and head of government. Legislative power is vested in the Legislative Assembly. The president and 57 Legislative Assembly deputies are elected for four-year terms. The judiciary operates independently from the executive and the legislature,but is involved in the political process. Costa Rica has a strong system of constitutional checks and balances. Voting is compulsory,but this is not enforced.
The Organization of American States is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas.
Óscar Arias Sánchez is a Costa Rican activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He was President of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2010.
The American Convention on Human Rights,also known as the Pact of San José,is an international human rights instrument. It was adopted by many countries in the Western Hemisphere in San José,Costa Rica,on 22 November 1969. It came into force after the eleventh instrument of ratification was deposited on 18 July 1978.
The National Liberation Party,nicknamed the verdiblancos,is a political party in Costa Rica. The party is a member of the Socialist International. Social-democratic by statute,the party has a few internal factions,including liberals,Third Way supporters,centrists,and social conservatives.
New Space is a social democratic party in Uruguay.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 5 February 2006. In the presidential election,Óscar Arias of the National Liberation Party,a former president and Nobel Peace Laureate,was victorious over Ottón Solís of the Citizens' Action Party and twelve other minor-party candidates. Although Arias was expected to win by a wide margin,the actual polling reports were unexpectedly close. However,early results showed the contest to be closer than it actually was. The preliminary official report,after 88.45% of the vote counted,showed the result for President of the Republic almost tied between Arias with 40.51% of the vote and Ottón Solís with 40.29%. Given the small difference of only 3250 votes,the Superior Electoral Tribunal announced that a manual count of all the votes would start immediately and no official winner would be announced until that process was completed,approximately two weeks after the election.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance is an intergovernmental organization that works to support and strengthen democratic institutions and processes around the world,to develop sustainable,effective and legitimate democracies. It has regional offices in Europe,Latin America and the Caribbean,Asia and the Pacific and Africa and West Asia. The organization is headquartered in Stockholm,Sweden.
Lesbian,gay,bisexual,and transgender (LGBT) 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.
Jean Blondel was a French political scientist specialising in comparative politics. He was Emeritus Professor at the European University Institute in Florence,and visiting professor at the University of Siena.
The Inter-American Democratic Charter was adopted on 11 September 2001 by a special session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States,held in Lima,Peru. It is an inter-American instrument with the central aim of strengthening and upholding democratic institutions in the nations of the Americas. The Charter,which is binding on all 34 of the currently active OAS member states,spells out what democracy entails and specifies how it should be defended when it is under threat.
The 1949 Constitution of Costa Rica established two vice-presidencies of Costa Rica,which are directly elected through a popular vote on a ticket with the president for a period of four years,with no immediate re-election. There has been various incarnations of the office. Vice presidents replace the president in cases of temporary or permanent absence.
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 woman to become President of Costa Rica. She was sworn in as President of Costa Rica on 8 May 2010.
John Henry Biehl del Río was a Chilean lawyer,political scientist,and diplomat who served as the cabinet-level Minister Secretary-General of the Presidency for Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle's administration.
General elections were held in Costa Rica on 5 February 1978. Rodrigo Carazo Odio of the Unity Coalition won the presidential election,whilst his party also won the parliamentary election. Voter turnout was 81%.
Luis Leonardo Almagro Lemes is a Uruguayan lawyer,diplomat,and politician who currently serves as the 10th Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) since 2015. A former member of the Broad Front,Almagro served as Minister of Foreign Relations of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 under president JoséMujica.
Jaime Aparicio Otero is the Bolivian Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States and was Bolivian Agent to the International Court of Justice,in the Hague,in the process against Chile related to the Silala waters. Ambassador Aparicio is a career diplomat,lawyer,journalist and a Washington-based legal and political advisor. He was also a political analyst working in international public and corporate affairs in Latin America,the Caribbean,North America,and Europe. He has a Law Degree from the Higher University of San Andrés of La Paz,the Bolivian Diplomatic Academy and the Institute d’Etudes Politiques commonly referred as Sciences Po de Paris.
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.
The Constitution of Costa Rica is the supreme law of Costa Rica. At the end of the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War,JoséFigueres Ferrer oversaw the Costa Rican Constitutional Assembly,which drafted the document. It was approved on 1949 November 7. Several older constitutions had been in effect starting from 1812,with the most recent former constitution ratified in 1871. The Costa Rican Constitution is remarkable in that in its Article 12 abolished the Costa Rican military,making it the second nation after Japan to do so by law. Another unusual clause is an amendment asserting the right to live in a healthy natural environment.
Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian is a Venezuelan political scientist and international affairs official. She has worked as a director and election observer at the Organization of American States (OAS),including as Director of the Department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation from 2011 to 2014 and then as Director of the Department of Social Inclusion.
