The law criminalizes a wide variety of corruption-related offenses by officials, including illicit enrichment, bribery, embezzlement, illegal procurement, insider trading, influence peddling, and nepotism. There were numerous reports of government corruption and a perception of impunity for abusers. The judicial branch investigated several cases of corruption, but there were no prosecutions during the year. The government fired 21 assistant prosecutors due to corruption allegations. The perception of corruption remained widespread in all branches of government and at all levels.

Corruption: The constitution mandates that the Senate (vice the judicial system) prosecute high-level officials and parliament members accused of corruption. As of year’s end, no government had ever prosecuted a high-level official for corruption.

In October 2017 a report by the Special Senate Committee of Inquiry on the Mismanagement of Petro Caribe Funds alleged between 2008 and 2016 the government mismanaged close to two billion dollars in Petro Caribe funds designed to develop the country. In February the Senate requested that the Administrative Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes investigate the allegations. The court was due to publish a report on the findings of its investigation in January 2019.

In August 2017 President Jovenel Moise fired Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Roosevelt Bellevue for alleged corruption related to the overinflated price of government-purchased school kits. On August 10, the Anticorruption Unit sent its report to the judiciary. The report cited numerous violations of public procurement laws by government officials and determined that the then minister of economy and finance, Jude Alix Salomon, issued an illegal waiver to justify school kit purchases. The report did not, however, support a finding of overbilling for the school kits. On August 15, the Superior Court of Audits and Administrative Disputes implicated Bellevue in the school kits affair.

Financial Disclosure: The law requires all senior government officials to file financial disclosure forms within 90 days of taking office and within 90 days of leaving office. There is no requirement for periodic reporting. Disclosure reports are confidential and not available to the public. The sanction for failure to file financial disclosure reports is a withholding of 30 percent of the official’s salary, but the government did not sanction any officials during the year or in any previous year. Government officials stated the requirement was not always followed.

Women

Rape and Domestic Violence: While the law prohibits rape of men or women, it does not recognize spousal rape as a crime. The penalty for rape is a minimum of 10 years of forced labor. In the case of gang rape, the maximum penalty is lifelong forced labor. Actual sentences were often less rigorous. The criminal code excuses a husband who kills his wife or her partner found engaging in an act of adultery in his home, but a wife who kills her husband under similar circumstances is subject to prosecution.

The law does not classify domestic violence against adults as a distinct crime. Women’s rights groups and human rights organizations reported domestic violence against women remained commonplace. Judges often released suspects arrested for domestic violence and rape.

In February the OPC reported that the First Instance Court of Jeremie, the largest city and capital of Grand’Anse Department, released 16 of 29 individuals accused of rape. The prosecutor for Jeremie, Bergemane Sylvain, allegedly dropped charges against the accused with the justification that the victims had signed statements withdrawing their claims. The OPC criticized Sylvain’s decision, saying that the law does not allow for compromise in criminal matters and that the victim’s retraction cannot stop a prosecution. The accused remained free at year’s end.

Victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence faced major obstacles in seeking legal justice, as well as in accessing protective services, such as women’s shelters. Civil society organizations reported that while women were more likely to report cases of sexual and domestic violence than in the past, many victims failed to report such cases due to a lack of financial resources. Additionally, due to familial responsibilities, victims were usually unable to dedicate the time necessary to follow through with legal proceedings. According to some civil society organizations, many local nonprofit organizations that provided shelter, medical and psychological services, and legal assistance to victims had to reduce services due to a lack of funding.

On September 6, MINUJUSTH reported an increase in the number of sexual and gender-based violence cases investigated. They reported that between January and August, 149 cases were investigated, compared with 181 investigations in all of 2017. Nonetheless, there were reports that in rural areas, criminal cases, including cases of sexual violence, were settled out of court. According to MINUJUSTH, prosecutors often encouraged such settlements.

Sexual Harassment: The law does not specifically prohibit sexual harassment, although the labor code states that men and women have the same rights and obligations. Observers indicated sexual harassment occurred frequently.

Coercion in Population Control: There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization.

Discrimination: The law does not provide for the same legal status and rights for women as for men. Women did not enjoy the same social and economic status as men, despite the constitutional amendments recognizing the principle of at least 30 percent women’s participation in national life and notably in public service.

By law men and women have equal protections for economic participation. In practice, however, women faced barriers to accessing economic inputs and securing collateral for credit, information on lending programs and resources.

Children

Birth Registration: Citizenship is derived through an individual’s parents; only one parent of either sex is necessary to transmit citizenship. Citizenship can also be acquired through a formal request to the Ministry of the Interior. The government did not register all births immediately. Birth registry is free until the age of two years. Approximately 30 percent of children between the ages of one and five lacked birth certificates or any other official documentation. Children born in rural communities were less likely to be documented than those in urban areas.

Education: Constitutional provisions require the government to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to grade nine (when students are approximately age 16); however, the government did not effectively enforce these provisions. Eight of 10 children who attended school did so at private, often religious institutions. The quality of those institutions varied widely because the government lacked the means to inspect them.

Child Abuse: The law prohibits domestic violence against minors. The government continued to lack sufficient resources and an adequate legal framework to support or enforce existing mechanisms to promote children’s rights and welfare fully, but it made some progress in institutionalizing protections for children.

The most recent study launched by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, published in 2015, estimated there were 286,000 children working in indentured domestic servitude (referred to as restaveks), a form of trafficking in persons. Furthermore, restaveks were often victims of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. The National Child Welfare Institute (IBESR), along with the HNP’s specialized Child Protection Bureau (BPM), were tasked with protecting the welfare of children. Their efforts were limited, however, by small budgets and inadequate personnel.

For more information, see the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/ and the Department of Labor’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor at www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/findings/ .

Early and Forced Marriage: The legal age of marriage is 18 years. No data was available regarding early and forced marriage, but childhood and forced marriage was not a widespread custom.

Sexual Exploitation of Children: The minimum age for consensual sex is 18 years, and the law has special provisions for rapes of persons who are 16 years or younger. The law prohibits the corruption of youth under 21, including prostitution, with penalties ranging from six months to three years of imprisonment for offenders. The law prescribes prison sentences of seven to 15 years of imprisonment and a fine ranging from 200,000 to 1.5 million Haitian Gourdes (HTG) ($2,900 to $21,600). The penalty for human trafficking with aggravating circumstances, which includes cases involving the exploitation of children, is up to life imprisonment.

According to a September 6 MINUJUSTH report, the majority of reported victims of sexual violence were underage girls. There were some reported instances of boys being raped. Several civil society groups reported children living in impoverished conditions were often subjected to sexual exploitation and abuse. According to these groups, children were often forced into prostitution or lured into transactional sex to fund basic needs such as school related expenses. Recruitment of children for sexual exploitation and pornography is illegal, but the United Nations reported criminal gangs recruited children as young as 10 years of age.

On June 13, the government announced it had permanently banned international NGO Oxfam from operating in the country following allegations that Oxfam employees had engaged in sexual misconduct and abuse during the 2010 earthquake response. There were allegations that some of the victims may have been minor children.

Institutionalized Children: The IBESR has official responsibility for monitoring and accrediting the country’s orphanages and residential care centers. According to international NGO Lumos, an estimated 25,000 children lived in the more than 750 orphanages in the country. An estimated 80 percent of those children had at least one known parent who was alive. In October the IBESR announced that only 35 of the more than 750 orphanages it inspected were compliant with the minimum standards for child care. The IBESR attempted to close the most egregious orphanages but could only do so as quickly as they could find placement for the children. In 2017 government officials closed four abusive orphanages that housed 116 children and potentially involved trafficking and placed 51 children from those orphanages into foster care; the remainder were returned to their families. The government accredited 96 families for its newly developed foster care program to make children less vulnerable to trafficking or being revictimized. Local and international antitrafficking organizations noted, however, that the government had not provided appropriate resources to develop enough transitional centers or other temporary housing and care facilities.

There are different provisions for juvenile offenders. Children under 13 are not held responsible for their actions, and until age 16, they cannot be held in adult prisons or share their cells. Instead, juvenile offenders were placed in re-education centers with the objective of successful societal reinsertion. There were two rehabilitation centers, both in Port-au-Prince, called CERMICOL. As of August approximately 200 minors were in CERMICOL.

International Child Abductions: The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction. See the Department of State’s Annual Report on International Parental Child Abduction at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data.html.

Anti-Semitism

The Jewish community numbered fewer than 100 persons, and there were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

Trafficking in Persons

See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/.

Persons with Disabilities

The constitution stipulates that persons with disabilities should have the means to provide for their autonomy, education, and independence. The law prohibits discrimination in employment practices against persons with disabilities, requires the government to integrate such persons into the state’s public services, and imposes a 2 percent quota for persons with disabilities in the workforces of private-sector companies. This quota was not met, as the government did not enforce these legal protections.

Local disabilities rights advocates stated that persons with disabilities faced significant obstacles to vote, as they had difficulty obtaining a national identification card, a requirement to vote, because the National Identification Office was inaccessible to persons with disabilities.

Individuals with disabilities faced significant social stigma because of their disability. Persons with mental or developmental disabilities were marginalized, neglected, and abused in society. The Office of the Secretary of State for the Integration of Handicapped Persons (BSEIPH), which falls under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, is the lead government agency responsible for providing assistance to persons with disabilities and ensuring their civil, political, and social inclusion.

The BSEIPH had several departmental offices outside the capital, and it effectively lobbied the government to pass legislation to benefit persons with disabilities. Nonetheless, its efforts were constrained by a limited budget, and there was little progress to create of a strategic development plan to guide the institutions efforts. The BSEIPH provided persons with disabilities with legal advice and job counseling services. It regularly convened meetings with disabilities rights groups in all of its regional offices.

Some disabilities rights activists called the social services available to persons with disabilities inadequate, adding that access to quality medical care posed a significant challenge for persons with disabilities. Hospitals and clinics in Port-au-Prince did not have sufficient space, human resources, or public funds to treat such individuals.

Acts of Violence, Discrimination, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

No laws criminalize sexual orientation or consensual same-sex conduct between adults. There are no antidiscrimination laws to protect LGBTI persons from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

There were no reports of police officers actively perpetrating or condoning violence against LGBTI individuals. Some LGBTI groups reported the HNP and judicial authorities were inconsistent in their willingness to document or investigate LGBTI persons’ claims of abuse. HNP academy instructors taught police officers to respect the rights of all civilians without exception. The curriculum specifically trained new officers on crimes commonly committed against the LGBTI community. As a result, some civil society leaders noticed a marked improvement in the efforts of the HNP’s Gender and Community Police Units to address the needs of the LGBTI community.

In August the office of an LGBTI rights organization was attacked by an individual shouting anti-LGBTI slogans. According to the organization, the attacker came to request financial assistance and when the organization refused, he attacked the office. The assailant returned the next day with other armed individuals to set fire to the office. The organization stated local police officers were slow to offer assistance and that at one point, an officer asserted there was no evidence of the alleged attack. The organization’s coordinator said he went to file a complaint with the local justice of the peace, who made anti-LGBTI remarks before referring him to the court clerk, who requested a bribe to begin the investigation.

Local attitudes remained hostile toward LGBTI individuals who were public and visible about their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression, particularly in Port-au-Prince. Some politicians, societal leaders, and organizations actively opposed the social integration of LGBTI persons and discussion of their rights. LGBTI advocacy groups in Port-au-Prince reported a greater sense of insecurity and less trust of government authorities than did groups in rural areas.

HIV and AIDS Social Stigma

According to a 2017 Center for Disease Control-sponsored stigma index, 57 percent of women and 54 percent of men said they would deny HIV-positive children entrance to schools with HIV-negative children, and 65 percent of women and 64 percent of men said they would not buy vegetables from persons with HIV.

Other Societal Violence or Discrimination

MINUJUSTH and numerous civil society organizations reported gang violence continued to increase, particularly in impoverished areas of Port-au-Prince such as Martissant and Grand-Ravine. MINUJUSTH reported that, between June and August, there were seven gang-related incidents reported, compared with three from the same period in 2017.

The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials, and the government generally implemented these laws effectively. Corruption remained a serious problem in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches as well as in the security forces. The government took steps to address corrupt practices among government employees and security forces. Anticorruption mechanisms such as asset forfeiture, whistleblower and witness protection, plea bargaining, and professional conflict-of-interest rules were used in the government’s efforts to combat corruption.

Corruption: A series of corruption scandals became public from May through August as the Comptroller General’s Office filed before the Supreme Court separate cases against deputies from all political parties represented in the National Assembly. Alleged corruption by deputies involved the following: relatives registered in National Assembly payrolls despite their not working there; dozens of workers from the private sector (restaurants, hotels, stores) who appeared on deputies’ payrolls (some without knowing it; some allegedly receiving a percentage of the salary collected monthly and the deputy pocketing the rest); political community leaders working for deputies in their districts and not for the National Assembly but on the assembly’s payrolls; salaries of workers from private companies owned by deputies being paid by National Assembly payrolls; and direct contracts awarded to companies owned by some deputies. As of August no charges had been filed against any of the deputies, but civil society outrage prompted the beginning of the “No reelection” movement for the May 2019 general elections.

Corruption and a lack of accountability among police continued to be a problem, although the government took steps to address violations. Agents were dismissed on grounds of corruption and were under investigation by the Public Ministry. After an 18-month investigation, in July the First Penal District Court held a preliminary hearing involving 12 individuals (four current and three former penitentiary system employees, two inmates, and three private individuals) for alleged corruption in the La Joya Prison, La Joyita Prison, and the Women’s Rehabilitation Center. According to inmates’ relatives, the group charged money for the alteration of documents to reduce sentences, falsify release orders, and improperly transfer inmates among prisons. The prosecutor requested the judge to press charges on 11 of the 12 conspirators.

In February the Comptroller General’s Office filed 186 audits before the Public Ministry for transactions between 2009 and 2014 by elected local representatives. The audits allegedly reflected misuse of public funds through irregular contracts carried out by the Martinelli administration’s National Assistance Program. As of November prosecutors continued with the investigations but had not filed charges.

In July the First Criminal Court tried Luis Cucalon, former internal revenue director under the Martinelli administration, on embezzlement and corruption charges. In September Cucalon was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison and forfeiture of six million balboas.

The case continued against former minister of the presidency Demetrio “Jimmy” Papadimitriu and former minister of public works Jaime Ford, both in the Martinelli administration, detained in September for alleged links to bribes paid by Brazilian multinational construction company Odebrecht. In August the Second Superior Tribunal refused to withdraw the charges or dismiss the case as requested by Papadimitriu’s lawyers. Both individuals faced money-laundering and corruption charges. They were released on bail but could not leave the country without a court order. The cases remained under the inquisitorial system.

Financial Disclosure: The law requires certain executive and judiciary officials to submit a financial disclosure statement to the Comptroller General’s Office. The information is not made public unless the official grants permission for access to the public.

Women

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape of men or women, including spousal rape, with prison terms of five to 10 years. The government generally implemented criminal aspects of the law better than protection aspects. Rapes constituted the majority of sexual crimes investigated by the PNP and its Directorate of Judicial Investigation.

The law against gender violence stipulates stiff penalties for harassment and both physical and emotional abuse. The law states that sentencing for femicide is a mandatory 25 to 30 years in prison. Officials and civil society organizations agreed that domestic violence continued to be a serious crime. In August the PNP initiated the Specialized Unit for Domestic and Gender Violence with 190 agents trained to work these cases. As of June there were 7,773 reported cases of domestic violence nationwide.

The Ombudsman’s Office continued its program Mujer Conoce tus Derechos (Woman, Know Your Rights), which included a wide distribution of flyers. The government, through the National Institute for Women’s Affairs, operated shelters for victims of domestic abuse and offered social, psychological, medical, and legal services. The secretary general of the Ombudsman’s Office and the director of the Panamanian Observatory Against Gender Violence claimed the number of shelters was insufficient.

Sexual Harassment: The law prohibits sexual harassment in cases of employer-employee relations in the public and private sectors and in teacher-student relations. Violators face a maximum three-year prison sentence. The extent of the problem was difficult to determine, because convictions for sexual harassment were rare, pre-employment sexual harassment was not actionable, and there was a lack of formal reports.

Coercion in Population Control: There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization.

Discrimination: The law prohibits discrimination based on gender, and women enjoyed the same legal status and rights as men. The law recognizes joint property in marriages. The law mandates equal pay for men and women in equivalent jobs. Although an illegal hiring practice, some employers continued to request pregnancy tests.

The Ministry of Social Development and the National Institute of Women promoted equality of women in the workplace and equal pay for equal work, attempted to reduce sexual harassment, and advocated legal reforms. In February President Varela signed a law prohibiting harassment and racism. The prior law sanctioned sexual harassment but not labor harassment or bullying. The law mandates equal rights for labor and measures to prevent discrimination as well as respect of the norms established in the international human rights conventions signed by the country. It establishes fines for employers or immediate supervisors who fail to follow the law and instructs the Ministries of Education, Social Development, and Labor, in conjunction with the University of Panama, to develop educational programs for the awareness of these rights.

Children

Birth Registration: The law provides citizenship for all persons born in the country, but parents of children born in remote areas sometimes had difficulty obtaining birth registration certificates. The National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents, and the Family estimated the registration level of births at 92 percent.

Child Abuse: The Ministry of Social Development maintained a free hotline for children and adults to report child abuse and advertised it widely. The ministry provided funding to children’s shelters operated by NGOs and continued a program that used pamphlets in schools to sensitize teachers, children, and parents about mistreatment and sexual abuse of children. In March President Varela signed a law amending the penal code to increase sentences for convicted pedophiles. Sentences went from five-10 years to seven-12 years in prison. If the crime is committed by a clergyperson, relative, tutor, or teacher, the penalties increased from eight-12 years to 10-15 years in prison.

Early and Forced Marriage: The minimum legal age for marriage is 18. The government prohibits early marriage even with parental permission.

Sexual Exploitation of Children: Officials continued to prosecute cases of sexual abuse of children in urban and rural areas, as well as within indigenous communities. Officials believed that commercial sexual exploitation of children occurred, including in tourist areas in Panama City and in beach communities, although they did not keep separate statistics.

International Child Abductions: The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. See the Department of State’s Annual Report on International Child Abduction at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data.html.

Anti-Semitism

Jewish community leaders estimated there were 15,000 Jews in the country. There were no known reports of anti-Semitic acts.

Trafficking in Persons

See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/.

Persons with Disabilities

The law prohibits discrimination based on physical, sensory, intellectual, or mental disabilities; however, the constitution permits the denial of naturalization to persons with mental or physical disabilities. The law mandates access to new or remodeled public buildings for persons with disabilities and requires that schools integrate children with disabilities. Despite provisions of the law, persons with disabilities experienced discrimination in a number of these areas.

Most of Panama City’s bus fleet was not wheelchair accessible. Metro elevators were frequently locked and could not be used. A lack of ramps further limited access to the stations. Most businesses had wheelchair ramps and accessible parking spaces as required by law, but in many cases they did not meet the government’s size specifications.

Some public schools admitted children with mental and physical disabilities, but most did not have adequate facilities for children with disabilities. Few private schools admitted children with disabilities, as they are not legally required to do so. The high cost of hiring professional tutors to accompany children to private schools–a requirement of all private schools–precluded many students with disabilities from attending.

In January the National Secretariat for Disabilities Issues publicly admitted a shortfall of 2.5 million balboas to conduct the Second National Census on People with Disabilities, which was two years behind schedule. The first census took place in 2006.

The government-sponsored Guardian Angel program continued to provide a monthly subsidy of 80 balboas for children with significant physical disabilities. To qualify, the parents or guardian of a child must be living in poverty and must submit a medical certification specifying the degree of the disability and the child’s dependency on another person. Authorities conducted home visits to ensure the beneficiaries’ guardians used the funds for the intended purpose.

In June and July the Ministry of Labor hosted weekly job fairs for persons with disabilities.

National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Minority groups were generally integrated into mainstream society. Prejudice was directed, however, at recent immigrants, the Afro-Panamanian community, and indigenous Panamanians. Newly arrived Venezuelans noted prejudice in popular culture and in recent laws passed by the legislature restricting labor participation and length of visa stays. Cultural and language differences and immigration status hindered the integration of immigrant and first-generation individuals from China, India, and the Middle East into mainstream society. Additionally, some members of these communities were reluctant to integrate.

The Afro-Panamanian community was underrepresented in positions of political and economic power. Areas where they lived lagged in terms of government services and social investment. The government’s National Secretariat for the Development of Afro-Panamanians focused on the socioeconomic advancement of this community. The secretariat was designed to work with the national census agency to ensure an accurate count in 2020 of Afro-descendant Panamanians.

The law prohibits discrimination in access to public accommodations such as restaurants, stores, and other privately owned establishments; no complaints were filed. The Ombudsman’s Office intervened in several cases before students with Rastafarian braids were permitted entry into public school classrooms.

There were reports of racial discrimination against various ethnic groups in the workplace. Lighter-skinned persons continued to be overrepresented in management positions and jobs that required dealing with the public, such as bank tellers and receptionists.

Indigenous People

The law affords indigenous persons the same political and legal rights as other citizens, protects their ethnic identity and native languages, and requires the government to provide bilingual literacy programs in indigenous communities. Indigenous individuals have the legal right to take part in decisions affecting their lands, cultures, traditions, and the allocation and exploitation of natural resources. Nevertheless, they continued to be marginalized in mainstream society. Traditional community leaders governed comarcas (legally designated semiautonomous areas) for five of the country’s seven indigenous groups. The government also unofficially recognized eight other traditional indigenous government authorities. Government institutions recognized these eight regions were traditionally organized indigenous settlements and territories not included when the original comarcas were created. Government officers continued to meet with traditional organized authorities from the community, and many requested recognition of their land via collective titles.

In March members of the Embera and Wounaan communities protested for collective land titles in front of the Ministry of Environment. To resolve the issue, the ministry granted eight territories, home to more than 5,000 persons, conditional land titles pending inspections by the National Authority of Land Administration. Several indigenous organizations along with NGOs requested a hearing at the IACHR to analyze the collective land title claims and the protection of indigenous communities. Part of the land of the 17 communities still awaiting titles fell within protected areas, which delayed ministerial approval.

Other land-titling conflicts continued to arise. In April the Embera Wounaan demanded the eviction of nonindigenous settlers occupying their land illegally, in compliance with a ruling from the Supreme Court. In July an incident between the indigenous Guna community from the Wargandi comarca in Darien and local settlers left one person dead and one injured. In October the National Assembly’s Indigenous Issues Committee approved a law to create a comarca for the Naso people. In September the Bri submitted a claim to the Supreme Court demanding the protection of their human rights. In 2015 the Bri Bri requested collective title for their lands in Bocas del Toro but as of November had not received a reply. This action was in response to a protest outside the Ministry of Environment’s regional office by local farmers, who contended the Bri Bri land claim included land farmed by approximately 300 local farmers and therefore the title should not be granted. The Bri Bri claim was analyzed in the October IACHR hearing, but the government requested more documentation and clarification of the specifics of the land claim.

The Ngabe and Bugle continued to oppose the Barro Blanco dam project, which became operational in April 2017. There were no plans by the government to halt dam operations. The Ngabe-Bugle and the government continued to negotiate details of the dam’s operation.

Although the country’s law is the ultimate authority in indigenous comarcas, many indigenous persons misunderstood their rights and, due to their inadequate command of the Spanish language, failed to use available legal channels.

In May the Ministry of Government presented its 15-year National Indigenous Peoples Development Plan, backed by a 25-year, $80 million loan from the World Bank. The plan includes goals to increase development investments for indigenous territories and to deliver public services within the comarcas.

In August members of the Guna community protested outside of the Electoral Tribunal against alleged discrimination. According to the group, community members were forced to remove a traditional nose piercing before taking their national identification photograph. After the incident the Electoral Tribunal instructed regional offices that they could not force a citizen to remove the piercing, according to a 2000 law that protects the right to traditional garb.

Societal and employment discrimination against indigenous persons was widespread. Employers frequently denied indigenous workers basic rights provided by law, such as a minimum wage, social security benefits, termination pay, and job security. Laborers on the country’s agricultural plantations (the majority of whom were indigenous persons) continued to work in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. The Ministry of Labor conducted limited oversight of working conditions in remote areas.

Education deficiencies continued in the comarcas, especially beyond the primary grades. There were not enough teachers in these remote and inaccessible areas, with many multigrade schools often poorly constructed and lacking running water. In April teachers and indigenous communities in the Ngabe comarca began periodically protesting the poor roads and education in the comarca by closing the Interamerican Highway as well as other roads. In September a group of Ngabe closed the highway for more than 10 hours to protest the delay in the construction of a road to their communities that would connect the 1,200 inhabitants and 12 schools. Police forcibly removed the protesters from the highway. Nine police officers were injured and 12 Ngabe arrested, some with injuries. This sparked a 60-day strike in 43 of the schools in the comarca as teachers demanded better work conditions, including safety bonuses, better life insurance, and improved roads. Access to health care was a significant problem in the indigenous comarcas, despite government investment in more health infrastructure and staff. This was reflected in high rates of maternal and infant mortality and malnutrition. The government continued to execute the Indigenous Development Plan jointly developed with indigenous leaders in 2013.

Acts of Violence, Discrimination, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The law does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. There was societal discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, which often led to denial of employment opportunities.

The PNP’s internal regulations describe consensual same-sex sexual conduct by its employees as against policy and potentially grounds for dismissal. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) human rights organizations reported harassment of LGBTI persons by security forces as a source of serious concern.

On June 29, LGBTI activists organized the 14th annual Pride Parade without impediment. Unlike in previous years, there was no anti-Pride Parade countermarch.

HIV and AIDS Social Stigma

The law prohibits discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS in employment and education. Discrimination continued to be common due to ignorance of the law and a lack of mechanisms for ensuring compliance. LGBTI individuals reported mistreatment by health-care workers, including unnecessary quarantines.

In August President Varela signed a law prohibiting labor and other types of discrimination against persons with sexually transmitted diseases and their immediate relatives and mandating employers to follow International Labor Organization (ILO) recommendations on how to manage employees with HIV. Employees are not obligated to disclose their condition to the employer, but if they do so, the employer must keep the information confidential. The law also mandates that persons seeking to wed must submit to the civil court a physician’s note certifying they each had an HIV test recently. The test results are not to be made known to the court, but the judge must ask both parties if they know the results of the other’s test. Marriage cannot be impeded if the results are positive. Several LGBTI activists complained that forcing the disclosure of the results to the other individual violates privacy rights.

The government’s National Network for the Continued Integral Attention of Persons with HIV/AIDS continued during the year. The Ministry of Social Development collaborated with the NGO PROBIDSIDA to conduct HIV/AIDS outreach to students in public junior and high schools.

In a joint effort with LGBTI NGOs, the UN Development Program, and the National Program for HIV/AIDS, the Ministry of Health conducted HIV/AIDS tests within the LBGTI community in several provinces. During the year PROBIDSIDA also worked with the Ministry of Public Security “Barrios Seguros” (Safe Neighborhoods) program to provide HIV/AIDS training and free testing services to at-risk youth from vulnerable communities. Individuals who tested positive received medical treatment.