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Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, December 14, 2004
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| FOR Humanity: Members of the new Costa Rican Commission on International Humanitarian Law – including Ombudsman José Manuel and Supreme Court president Luis Paulino Mora – are sworn in. |
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Country Launches Commission on
International Humanitarian Law
Although Costa Rica has no army, and faces no immediate threat of armed conflict, the government yesterday announced a new Commission on International Humanitarian Law to adopt a set of rules that seek, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict.
(Click for more)
Francisco Flores Visits
To Promote OAS Candidacy
Former President of El Salvador Francisco Flores visited Costa Rica yesterday to meet with Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco as part of a tour of Central America seeking support for his candidacy for Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS).
(Click for more)
Hundreds Left
Homeless After Fire
The Costa Rican Red Cross said yesterday that 144 children and 170 adults lost their homes and possessions to the fire that blazed through more than 50 houses and shacks during Saturday's fire in Pavas, in western of San José.
(Click for more)
December 14
Stanzas for the Soul
Alvaro Fernández and Nylon and Metal group are putting music to poems written by Jorge Debravo, José Martí, Roque Daltos, and Joaquín Gutierrez, 7 p.m. at the Spanish Cultural Center , Plaza del Farolito, Barrio Escalante. Info: 257-2919.
Free Neruda in the Heart
Poetry recital with music honoring famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in celebration of his 100th birthday, 7 p.m. at the National Library.
Jazz Concert
The recognized group Amarillo Cyan Magenta will introduce jazz mixed with the Coalition Dub group, visiting from New York , at 10 p.m. at the Jazz Café in San Pedro.
Edited By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
Country Launches Commission on
International Humanitarian Law
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
Although Costa Rica has no army, and faces no immediate threat of armed conflict, the government yesterday announced a new Commission on International Humanitarian Law to adopt a set of rules that seek, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict.
The commission – made up of 16 state institutions, including six ministries – will make recommendations to the Executive Branch regarding how Costa Rica will adopt, apply and diffuse the norms of international humanitarian law, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Miguel Díaz.
“Although there is no war here, you have to have a group of laws to comply with international accords,” Díaz said.
Díaz said Costa Rica is affected by war through issues such as refugees and conflict in neighboring countries. For example, in the 1980s landmines were planted in Costa Rican territory during Nicaragua 's civil war, he said.
International humanitarian law is the body of rules that, in wartime, protects people who are not or are no longer participating in the hostilities. Its central purpose is to limit and prevent human suffering in times of armed conflict, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The rules are to be observed not only by governments and their armed forces, but also by armed opposition groups and any other parties to a conflict. The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977 are the principal instruments of humanitarian law.
“We are renewing, one more time, our commitment to peace and the protection of human rights, the ultimate and supreme goals of the State,” Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar said at yesterday's event.
He added that the commission expresses, once again, the country's commitment to protecting refugees and victims of armed conflict.
Costa Rica is the 16 th Latin American country to form such a commission.
Yesterday's launching of the commission was attended by Swiss Ambassador Gabriela Nützi Sulpizio; Antón Camen from the International Red Cross Committee; Sonia Picado, president of the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights; and Luis Paulino Mora, president of Costa Rica's Supreme Court.
The commission is coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Relations, and is made up of the ministries of Public Education, Justice, Public Security, Presidency and Public Health; the Government Attorney's Office, the Judicial Branch, the Legislative Branch, the Ombudsman's Office, the University of Costa Rica, Universidad Nacional, National Council of University Rectors, the Costa Rican Red Cross, and the Costa Rican Lawyer's Association.
Francisco Flores Visits
To Promote OAS Candidacy
Former President of El Salvador Francisco Flores visited Costa Rica yesterday to meet with Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco as part of a tour of Central America seeking support for his candidacy for Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS).
“It's important that in these moments Central Americans close the ranks and it is important to form a Central American team in the sense that we are running a candidate for the Secretary General not as a country, but as a region,” Flores said before he met with Pacheco.
When asked about the fact that Honduras President Ricardo Maduro has said Flores is not a candidate of “consensus,” Flores said, “the differences are being resolved” and that he hopes to speak with Maduro tomorrow in El Salvador during a summit of Central American Presidents.
President Pacheco said in Costa Rica “we have been with ‘don Paco,' with don Francisco, and we are at this moment with him.”
However, Pacheco clarified that the Costa Rican government would not give its support to Flores if allegations of his corruption are proven to be true. So far, he added, the allegations “have only been rumors.”
The OAS Secretary General seat was left open after the resignation of former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez, who stepped down a month after he took office because of allegations of corruption here. Rodríguez is currently in preventive detention in a prison northwest of San José (TT, Oct. 15).
– AFP
Hundreds Left
Homeless After Fire
By María Gabriela Díaz
Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net
The Costa Rican Red Cross said yesterday that 144 children and 170 adults lost their homes and possessions to the fire that blazed through more than 50 houses and shacks during Saturday's fire in Pavas, in western of San José.
The Red Cross, which provided medical assistance during the fire, said no serious injuries nor deaths resulted from the incident.
“Two people required oxygen for respiratory problems induced by the fumes, but no one needed to be transferred to a hospital, which is incredible in a fire of this size,” Red Cross spokeswoman Noemy Coto told The Tico Times yesterday.
The Red Cross provided more than 300 personal hygiene kits to each person affected by the fire. Temporary shelters were set up in two churches in Pavas, although Coto wasn't sure how many people were still there yesterday.
The fire, which took more than two hours to extinguish, was first reported at 6:30 p.m., when a resident called saying the blaze started with a fire used to cook tamales (TT Daily Page, Dec. 13).
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