Criminalization of Violence Against Women Law

Brief Description

Article 1 of the Costa Rican Criminalization of Violence against Women Law (2007) states: “This Act is designed to protect the rights of victims of violence and to punish forms of physical, psychological, sexual and patrimonial violence against adult women, as discriminatory practices based on gender, and specifically in a relationship of marriage, de facto union declared or not, in compliance with the obligations undertaken by the State under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Law No. 6968 of October 2, 1984, as well as the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women, Act No. 7499, May 2, 1995.”

Article 21 deals with femicide: 
"Se le impondrá pena de prisión de veinte a treinta y cinco años a quien dé muerte a una mujer con la que mantenga una relación de matrimonio, en unión de hecho declarada o no."