Costa Rica’s National Institute for Women (INAMU), the ministerial-level institution charged with the protection of women in society, is urging lawmakers in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly to pass a bill that seeks to eliminate criminal records for women and greatly reduce them for men.

Under current law, criminal records remain on a convicted person’s record for 10 years from the time they finish serving their court-imposed sentence, regardless if they are a man or a woman.

The bill proposes to amend the Law of Judicial Records and Archives so that the criminal records of female convicts who live in a condition of “poverty or vulnerability” have their criminal records erased immediately after completion of their sentence, regardless of the crime or the amount of time served.

In the case of men, the bill proposes that conviction records will not appear for those seeking employment, except for convictions related to organized crime, terrorism, sexual offenses against minors, murder, femicide and crimes against a civil servant – exceptions that would not apply to women.

Furthermore, in the case of men not seeking employment, the bill aims to immediately remove any criminal records for those whose sentence was three years in prison or less upon completion of their sentence; reduce the criminal record from the current 10 years to just 1 year for men who were sentenced to between three and five years imprisonment; while men sentenced to five to ten years in prison, the criminal record would remain for 3 years.

For men sentenced to 10 years or more in prison, the record would remain for 5 years.

However in all cases, women – but not men – who live in a condition of “poverty or vulnerability” would have their records permanently expunged upon completing their sentences.

“For INAMU, this is an affirmative action for women, women determined to regain their families and have a life that allows them to study, work and continue to be heads of households. It is a way to support them and allow them to break the chains that continue to hold them down socially after serving their sentence,” Minister for the Status of Women and INAMU chief, Alejandra Mora said.

The Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly approved the final text of the bill on February 25^th and the bill is now ready for voting in plenary.

The bill has received the support of the current administration of President Luis Guillermo Solis.

While many lawmakers from across political aisles have expressed support for the bill, business leaders argue that employers have a right to know about the criminal background of potential employees.

Other critics, meanwhile, argue that the bill is sexist, comparing it similarly to a law that was passed in 2013 by which women who smuggle drugs into the country’s prisons face lighter sentences than men who commit the same crime.