Supplementary Information on Costa Rica Scheduled for review by the CEDAW Committee in its 49th Session

This letter is intended to supplement the combined 5th and 6th reports submitted by the Republic of Costa Rica, scheduled for review by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (the Committee) during its 49th session. The Center for Reproductive Rights (The Center), the Asociación Colectiva por el Derecho a Decidir (CPDD), the Centro de Investigación y Promoción para América Central de Derechos Humanos (CIPAC), Law Students for Reproductive Justice of the University of Washington School of Law, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the Agenda Política de Mujeres, the Alianza de Mujeres Costarricense, and the Fundación Promoción, Capacitación y Acción Alternativa (PROCAL), hope to further the work of the Committee by providing independent information concerning the rights protected in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).1 This letter will address the right to comprehensive healthcare and information, and particularly Costa Rica's failure to guarantee access to comprehensive reproductive health services that only women need, such as legal abortion, emergency contraception and in vitro fertilization for women with infertility. This letter will further address the State's failure to implement comprehensive sexual education, and the discrimination faced by lesbian women in healthcare settings –all of which have had detrimental impacts on the health and rights of women and girls in Costa Rica and constitute violations of this Convention.