COSTA RICA - Criminal Prosecution to Punish War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity No. 8272

Article 2. Articles 378 and 379 are hereby appended to Part XVII of the Penal Code; the numbering of the subsequent articles is incremented accordingly.

The texts shall read as follows:

“Article 379. Crimes against Humanity. A prison term of between ten and twenty-five years shall be applied to anyone who, as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, with knowledge of the attack, commits or orders the commission of acts recognised as crimes against humanity by international treaties to which Costa Rica is party – where these treaties relate to the protection of human rights – or by virtue of the Rome Statute."

Article 7
Crimes against humanity
1. For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(c) Enslavement;
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
(j) The crime of apartheid;
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.