Fundación Arias report: hate crimes against LGBTQ+ community in Costa Rica face data gap and impunity.
2025 October 29
The Fundación Arias para la Paz y el Progreso Humano (Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress) — the Costa Rican NGO founded in 1988 by former president and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias Sánchez — published an analysis titled "La Violencia que Ataca la Identidad: Crímenes de Odio contra la Comunidad LGBTQ+" (Violence That Attacks Identity: Hate Crimes Against the LGBTQ+ Community).
The analysis frames hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people as a form of gender-based armed violence that is not limited to biological sex but attacks identity and individual expression. It states that LGBTQ+ people have a significantly higher prevalence of being victims of hate crimes, intimate partner violence, and discrimination, and that attacks frequently include extrajudicial executions and sexual violence, perpetrated with the intent of punishing those who challenge traditional norms of gender and sexuality.
Citing the annual report of Sin Violencia LGBTI, the Foundation notes that in 2023 at least 364 LGBTIQ+ people were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean, with more than a third (39%) of those crimes committed with firearms. Trans women and cisgender gay men were the principal victims.
On Costa Rica specifically, the analysis emphasizes a documentation deficit: the country has neither comparable nor sufficient data to capture the reality of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes. It cites the "Proyecto VIH-CR" review of press reports from 2000 to 2020, which revealed a pattern of murders and extreme violence against LGBTIQ+ people in Costa Rica — particularly trans women and lesbians.
The Foundation argues that the Costa Rican legal system presents serious challenges in addressing these crimes. The absence of adequate mechanisms to investigate complaints and the omission of discrimination as a key factor in investigations generate impunity. Femicide motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity, it notes, is a form of violence that has been poorly documented, which renders victims invisible and obstructs the search for justice.