The Costa Rican Legislative Assembly definitively approved this past Wednesday the declaration of December 10th of each year as National Human Rights Day. The bill received the approval of 36 of the 41 deputies present at this afternoon’s session.
The initiative consists of two articles. The first, which creates the celebration and authorizes public institutions to carry out allusive and reflective acts. In addition, it urges private companies to join in this commemoration.
The second adds a subsection to article three of the Fundamental Law of Education, so that it reads as follows:
Article 3-. For the fulfillment of the stated purposes, Costa Rican education will seek: […]
g) Maintain, permanently, the study of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
To become law, the proposal requires the signature of the President of the Republic, Carlos Alvarado Quesada. The project was presented on March 10th, 2020 by parliamentarians Jorge Fonseca Fonseca and Paola Valladares Rosado, from the National Liberation Party (PLN); Enrique Sánchez Carballo, from the ruling Citizen Action Party (PAC); Patricia Álvarez Villegas, from the National Integration Party (PIN); as well as the independent Ivonne Acuña Cabrera.
Boost to culture
During this Wednesday’s session, Congress also approved in a second debate – with 37 votes in favor and 1 against – the bill that incorporates cultural and creative industries among the financing priorities of the Development Banking System (SBD). ).
The initiative orders the Governing Council to design “policies to provide priority treatment to projects promoted by women, the elderly, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, young entrepreneurs, development associations, cooperatives, SME consortia in accordance with Law 9576 for the Promotion of the Competitiveness of SMEs through the Development of Consortiums, of June 22, 2018, as well as projects that comply with the parameters of this law, promoted in areas of relatively less development, defined by the development index social calculated by the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (Mideplán) “.
Cleaner production
Likewise, it incorporates among the priorities those enterprises that promote the concept of “cleaner production” and those that seek to produce or distribute creative or cultural goods and services.
These financing and non-financial support policies will make it possible for these groups to access credits, endorsements, guarantees, conditions and non-financial and business development services.
The proponent of the text and head of the government fraction, Laura Guido Pérez, highlighted that “with this, what we seek is to throw a bridge towards the formalization and access to credit for the creative and cultural industries, for cultural and cultural enterprises. for expressions that have been nurtured by cultural manifestations as a way of life and value creation.
