Caso Rodríguez Y Bermúde Contra La República De Costa Rica

Article 33 of the constitution of Costa Rica states that “All persons are equal before the law and there may be no discrimination against human dignity.” Antonio Rodríguez and Eliécer Bermude, a homosexual couple, feel that they are not treated as equals before the law because of their sexual orientation. On May 17, 2011 they asked the Family Court of San José in Costa Rica tol et them get married, therefore have the same rights married couples have. Their request was rejected by Judge Arturo Marcheno who told them that it was “illegally imposible for people of the same-sex to get married,” citing the Costa Rican Family Code. These two men have chosen to appeal the Decision to the Latin American Court of Human Rights, since they feel that their rights were violated when their request was denied.

Until the presidency of Tomás Guardia, homosexuality was classified as a grave crime in Costa Rica. After that, it was decriminalized, yet not accepted. Now, homosexuality is accepted, but it has not gotten to a point where it is legal for homosexuals to get married. The fact that in Costa Rica gay marriage is not legal is a violation to the human rights of those who desire to marry someone of their same sex, because the American Convention of Human rights states in Article 24 that “All persons are equal before the law. Consequently, they are entitled, without discrimination, to equal protection of the law.” All persons have the right to get married, not the right to get married to someone of the opposite sex. There is no full equality if you let those who are straight marry who they want, yet you do not let homosexuals marry who they desire to marry.

Antonio Rodríguez and Eliécer Bermude were denied the permit to get married because the Costa Rican Family Code says that it is “illegally imposible for people of the same-sex to get married.” This could indicate that there should be no further discussion on the topic since the Family Code clearly states that in Costa Rica two people of the same sex cannot get married, yet this sentence expresses why the human rights of these two men have been violated. If you say something is illegally imposible then there must be laws that back it up and lead to it being imposible, yet there are none. There are no laws in the Constitution of Costa Rica that state that two people of the same sex cannot get married. There is no explanation to why gay marriage is illegally imposible; for Costa Rica it just is. Making gay marriage illegally imposible without any justification is a violation of the human rights, since it prevents homosexuals to be fully equal without explanation.

Two men’s rights were violated in Costa Rica when they were denied the permission to get married. This shows that full equality does not exist, which is wrong because everyone has the right to be equal before the law and some people are not treated as that,

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