Rioverde approves ordinance for inclusion and non-discrimination of the LGBTIQ+ community

The Council of the Decentralized Autonomous Municipal Government of the Rioverde canton approved the Ordinance for equal opportunities, respect and non-discrimination; guaranteeing the social and economic inclusion of the LGBTIQ+ community in the Rioverde canton. The regulation was sanctioned by Mayor Joffre Quintero Bolaños on March 13, 2026, and published in the Official Registry, Special Edition No. 1689, on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, on page 58.

Processing and legal framework

The text was discussed and approved by the Municipal Council in an extraordinary session on March 3, 2026, and in an ordinary session on March 13, 2026, as certified by the Council Secretary, Mell Muñoz Rodríguez. The mayor sanctioned the ordinance invoking articles 322 and 324 of the Organic Code of Territorial Organization, Autonomy and Decentralization (COOTAD), in exercise of the regulatory power of article 57 of the same legal body.

The ordinance declares as public policy the promotion, protection, and comprehensive guarantee of the rights of people with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, and orders the incorporation of a rights-based approach in all municipal plans, programs, projects, and services. Among the rights it lists are the free development of personality, aesthetic freedom, the use of public space, comprehensive health, decent work, and education under equal conditions.

Care network, complaints, and prohibition of conversion therapies

Article 23 establishes as a municipal responsibility to create and socialize, through inter-institutional coordination, a network of care points for LGBTIQ+ people, with comprehensive access to support, protection, and restitution of rights services. Article 33 provides for the development of a complaints protocol using information technologies and the prohibition of all forms of revictimization.

• Article 19 prohibits the installation, operation, and promotion of centers or practices that aim to modify gender identity or sexual orientation, and orders the definitive closure of establishments that engage in them.
• Article 34 assigns to the Cantonal Board for the Protection of Rights the competence to hear and process cases of discrimination and violence based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
• Article 17 enables physical and digital complaint channels and orders affirmative actions for transgender people in employment, education, and health.

Citizen participation and commemorative dates

The regulation creates the LGBTIQ+ Advisory Council and the LGBTIQ+ Assembly, which will meet ordinarily every three months. The Rioverde Cantonal Board for the Protection of Rights, through the Gender Equity department, will coordinate actions with the Inter-institutional Gender Table.

Article 25 establishes four mandatory commemoration dates:

• June 28: International LGBTIQ+ Pride Day.
• November 20: International Transgender Day of Remembrance.
• November 27: National Day of Sex-Gender Diversities.
• December 1: World AIDS Day.

Deadlines and Financing

The transitional provisions establish three deadlines counted from the enactment: 90 days for public socialization and communication policies, 60 days for the registration and social census of organizations, and 12 months for the Permanent Commission on Equality and Gender to present a draft of the sanctioning regime. Resources must be incorporated into the municipality’s Annual Operating Plan (POA), under the principles of progressivity and non-regressivity.

The ordinance will enter into force upon its enactment and will be published on the municipality’s institutional website or in the Municipal Gazette, without prejudice to its promulgation in the Official Registry.

With this regulation, Rioverde joins the local governments that have regulated the protection of the LGBTIQ+ population via ordinance, a step that provides the canton with concrete instruments—service points, complaint protocols, and a sanctioning regime in preparation—to move from formal recognition to the effective guarantee of rights.

Source: Official Registry, Special Edition No. 1689, Tuesday, October 13, 2026, p. 58 (official reference: Special Edition No. 1689).