Costa Rica

Gender + religious + ethnic discrimination

In Costa Rica, Ngäbe‑Büglé parents have been denied birth registration for their children if they do not have have documents proving their legal status in the country. The Ngäbe‑Büglé are mobile Indigenous peoples who often migrate cross-border between Costa Rica and Panama as seasonal agricultural workers. The CRC (2011, 2020), Human Rights Council (2014, 2024), and Human Rights Committee (2016) have all issued recommendations regarding improving registration for Indigenous children.

Promising Practices

In 2019 Costa Rica passed a law guaranteeing nationality to Ngäbe‑Büglé people. This law enabled the Civil Registry to adopt simplified procedures that recognize the cultural and geographical particularities of the Ngäbe-Buglé. The country has undertaken measures to register and naturalize many Ngäbe-Buglé people, including the 2014 ‘Chiriticos Project’, a collaborative effort between Panama and Costa Rica to register the births of Indigenous people.