Approximately 15 days ago the Civil Registry of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) modified the last version of the identity card issued in 2016. This change consists in the elimination of the letters “f” and “m” that distinguish between masculine and female, thus leaving the gender box empty.
This modification, according to Luis Guillermo Chinchilla, director of the Civil Registry, is due to the provisions that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights established at the time and that the TSE approved in May.
Chinchilla mentioned that in about three months they will start issuing cédulas without the gender box and clarified that this cannot be carried out immediately because the preprinted cards must be used first.
The Civil Registry is the longest-running institution of the TSE. Since 1888, this institution is responsible for keeping track of the vital and legal facts of all Costa Ricans.
In 1926, the Civil Registry issued for the first time a type of identity document that included information such as features of the face, if the person knew how to write or read and data that allowed differentiating the bearer of the document because it did not include a photograph.
This institution is also responsible for the registration of births, deaths, marriages and separations that happen every day. More than 99.5% of the country’s population has a registry. All the information collected is the basis of the national registry, vital component to carry out the national voting processes.
Technology has been gradually taking over the procedures performed in the Civil Registry. Now, officials of the different hospitals in the country have access to register newborns by means of a tablet.
In addition, people can also access the issuance of notifications from a smartphone, i.e., you can visit the TSE website from a smartphone and request a criminal record sheet or birth certificate and download it immediately. This procedure has a cost of 1500 colones.