The Superior Notarial Council in Costa Rica has agreed that for now all public notaries in the country are forbidden from celebrating same-sex marriages, despite the resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights until a legislative reform is made or a constitutional annulment sentence is emitted regarding the norms that regulate marriage in Costa Rica.

The Council refers in particular to Article 14, item 6 of the Family Code which is still valid and which states:
Article 14-“Marriage is legally impossible:

6) Between people of the same sex.”

Notaries must stick to the law which prevails at this time.

The Inter-America Court of Human Rights resolved earlier this week that same-sex couples should be recognized and guaranteed “all the rights that are derived from a family bond between people of the same sex” and that the governments must guarantee access “to all existing forms of domestic legal systems, including the right to marriage, in order to ensure the protection of all the rights of families formed by same-sex couples without discrimination”.

However, it also concluded that “this Court cannot ignore the fact that is possible that some States must overcome institutional difficulties to adequate the internal legislation and extend the right to marriage to same-sex couples, especially when there are rigid forms of legislative reform, susceptible of imposing a process not exempt of political difficulties and steps that require certain time”… “We urge these States to really push in good faith the legislative reforms, administrative and legal, necessary to adequate their regulations, interpretations and internal practices”.

The position of the Notarial Council is informed just one day before a same-sex couple prepared to get married in Costa Rica.