Costa Rica’s Attorney General’s office notified the Labor Ministry that the ministry is correct in applying retirement benefits to same-sex partners in the same way they do for heterosexual partners.

“The response of the Office of the Attorney General helps to determine with legal certainty and clarity the path the national pensions directorate should take for the implementation of this legal change, which will be carried out in harmony with respect for human rights and social justice,” said Juan Alfaro López, deputy labor minister.

The legal opinion, dated June 16, was in response to a consultation presented by the national pensions directorate of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security regarding the feasibility of granting pension benefits to surviving same-sex cohabitants.

The inquiry referred specifically to the application of Law 7531 which regulates the distribution of benefits of those affiliated with the national educators pension fund (Magisterio Nacional).

At present, the national educators pension fund has 41,011 members, of which 6,275 fall under the couple distribution regulations stipulated in Law 7531.

The attorney general’s office stated in their decision that, “… the protection granted to the permanent partners of heterosexual couples should be extended to the permanent partners of gay couples … There is no reasonable and objective basis to subject people who exercise their rights to free development of their personality and to free sexual choice in forming a partnership with a person of the same gender …to unequal treatment.”

The attorney general’s office continued by saying that to deny same-sex partners economic benefits enjoyed by heterosexual partners “constitutes direct discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation that is contrary to the principle of equal treatment and human dignity, and therefore, contrary to International Law and the Political Constitution.”