Costa Rica

Key Factors: After a half century of economic performance that was well above average for the region, Costa Rica has begun to experience a significant slowdown. The worsening economic situation is reflected in a stagnant poverty rate, which has remained constant at 21% over the last eight years, and an increasingly large gap in the distribution of income between rich and poor.¹ These economic problems have seriously hindered efforts to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. According to the Ombudsman's Office the population with disabilities is among the most excluded sectors of Costa Rican society.²

Definition of Disability

There are two main definitions of disability used in Costa Rica. One appears in the Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Act (Law 7600), which came into force on 29 May 1996. The law identifies a disability as:

Any physical, mental or sensory impairment that substantially limits one or more essential activities of an individual.³

The second definition, taken from Article 1 of the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, characterizes the term "disability" as:

A physical, mental, or sensory impairment, whether permanent or temporary, that limits the capacity to perform one or more essential activities of daily life, and which can be caused or aggravated by the economic or social environment.⁴

^1. National Directorate of Statistics and Census, Encuesta de Hogares y Propósitos Múltiples [Home and Multipurpose Survey], Ministry of Economics, Industry, and Commerce, (Costa Rica, July 1998); Leonardo Garnier, "Columna Sub-versiones", La Nación, (26 December 2002), 15.

^2. Annual Report of the Ombudsman, 1998-1999.

^3. Law 7600, Igualdad de Oportunidades para las personas con Discapacidad en Costa Rica [Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities], La Gaceta, 2000, sec. 2.

^4. Organization of American States, Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, (OAS/ Ser. L/ I.4 Rev. 8, Washington, 22 May 2001), 112.