Location: Costa Rica



Environmental Administrative Tribunal

The Environmental Administrative Tribunal, created by the Costa Rican government in its 1995 Environment Act No. 7554, has jurisdiction to hear complaints for violations of all laws protecting the environment and natural resources (art. 111). The Tribunal can carry out on-site visits to determine the nature of environmental damage, and when it finds that a violation has …   Continue readingEnvironmental Administrative Tribunal

Amparo Cause of Action and the Principle of Intereses Difusos in Costa Rica

Article 48 of the Costa Rican Constitution provides for the remedy of amparo in order to maintain or re-establish the enjoyment of rights set out in the Constitution, as well as those of a fundamental nature established in international human rights treaties enforceable in Costa Rica. The amparo cause of action has been construed very broadly, to allow …   Continue readingAmparo Cause of Action and the Principle of Intereses Difusos in Costa Rica

Certificación para la Sostenibilidad Turística en Costa Rica/Costa Rica’s Certification for Sustainable Tourism

The Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Tourism. Among other tasks, it administers the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) programme, a voluntary points-based system created in 1998 to recognize enterprises’ efforts towards environmentally friendly practices and business models. ICT evaluates each participating business …   Continue readingCertificación para la Sostenibilidad Turística en Costa Rica/Costa Rica’s Certification for Sustainable Tourism

The Environmental Jurisprudence of Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Chamber of the Costa Rican Supreme Court has actively implemented the constitutional right to a healthy environment. Since 1995, much of the case law of the Constitutional Chamber has concerned the application of article 50 of the Costa Rican Constitution, which sets forth the right to a healthy environment. The Constitutional Chamber has defined the …   Continue readingThe Environmental Jurisprudence of Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court

Costa Rican Ombudsperson’s Environmental Actions

he Office of the Ombudsperson is an independent body of the Costa Rican Legislature, which has the general responsibility of protecting the rights and interests of Costa Ricans by ensuring that the public sector meets standards set by the Constitution, statutes, conventions, treaties and general principles of law, as well as standards of morality and justice. It has the …   Continue readingCosta Rican Ombudsperson’s Environmental Actions

Costa Rica’s State of the Nation Report

The State of the Nation Report is an annual report that serves as a performance monitoring system for Costa Rica, through the selection, measurement and evaluation of a wide range of components of sustainable human development. The report was established as part of the Programa Estado de la Nación/State of the Nation Program in 1994 as a UN Development Programme project, …   Continue readingCosta Rica’s State of the Nation Report

Faciladores Judiciales (Judicial Facilitators)

The Organisation of American States (OAS) began implementing a pilot of the judicial facilitators programme in Nicaragua in the late 1990s and it has grown to a well-established initiative in multiple Latin American countries. The objective of the programme is to improve access to justice among local communities where there have historically been barriers to access to …   Continue readingFaciladores Judiciales (Judicial Facilitators)