AMULABI submits report on conversion therapy to UN Universal Periodic Review.
2025 April
AMULABI (Asociación Mulabi) submitted a report to Costa Rica's 4th Universal Periodic Review (47th session) documenting ongoing conversion therapy operations in the country, conducted by practitioners backed by US-based religious organizations.
The report highlights the legislative blocking by Nueva República's faction of bills seeking to prohibit conversion therapy, and the government's overall inaction despite documented harm to LGBTQ individuals. A bill to ban these practices had been stalled in the Human Rights Committee after facing opposition from conservative lawmakers who argued it threatened "religious freedom".
In March 2024, the embassies of the United States, Canada, Colombia, Spain and the Netherlands had jointly sent a letter to Congress supporting the prohibition of conversion therapies, arguing they "typically cause profound and lasting psychological and physical trauma".