Costa Rica signs the UNCAC Review Transparency Pledge

10 December 2025 –

Costa Rica has become the 43rd country to sign the UNCAC Coalition’s Transparency Pledge, voluntarily committing to a high level of transparency and civil society inclusion in the second cycle of the UNCAC implementation review.

The official second cycle UNCAC review process in Costa Rica, which covers articles on preventive measures (Chapter II of the UNCAC) and asset recovery (Chapter V), was scheduled to begin in 2019. The review process is still ongoing: the self-assessment checklist has been completed, and the country visit by peer-reviewing states Ecuador and Oman was held from 13-15 December 2022 in a hybrid manner with the participation of the civil society organization Costa Rica Íntegra.

Costa Rica’s executive summary has been published on its UNODC country profile page. The self-assessment checklist has not been published there yet. The full country report is still being drafted. A civil society parallel report on the implementation of Chapters II and V of the UNCAC in Costa Rica was published by Costa Rica Íntegra, with support from the UNCAC Coalition, in June 2021. The Coalition supported Costa Rica Íntegra in conducting follow-up activities in 2024-2025.

The Transparency Pledge was signed by Ambassador Antonio Alarcón Zamora, Director General of Foreign Policy, Republic of Costa Rica. Costa Rica has taken note of the UNCAC Coalition’s Guide to Transparency and Participation in the UNCAC Review Mechanism, which outlines good practices of civil society participation to ensure a transparent and inclusive review process.

Principles of Transparency

The Transparency Pledge covers the following principles, complementing the UNCAC Coalition’s guide which includes best practice approaches for promoting transparency and participation in the review process:

  1. We will publish updated review schedules for our country review
  2. We will share information about the review institution or the coordinator (focal point)
  3. We will announce the completion of the country review indicating where the report can be found
  4. We will promptly post online the self-assessment and the full country report in a UN language, together with the executive summary in local languages
  5. We will organize civil society briefings and public debates about the findings of the report
  6. We will publicly support participation of civil society observers in UNCAC subsidiary bodies

Tracking Compliance

See the country review documents as they are published on Costa Rica’s UNODC country profile page, or find all known details on the status of UNCAC reviews globally, the government focal point and the published documents, available civil society parallel reports, etc.,  all in one place – on our UNCAC Review Status Tracker.

All Pledge signatories’ compliance with their commitment can be monitored on our Transparency Pledge Compliance Map.