In a strategic move to expand the global reach of the Santiago de Compostela Convention, a pivotal online bilateral meeting was held with high-level representatives from the Ministry of Health of Costa Rica.

The Costa Rican delegation comprised Dr César Gamboa Peñaranda, Dr Roselyn Serrano Vargas (Costa Rica's representative in the Committee of the Parties to the Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs), and Dr Teresita Barquero. All three serve within the Technical Executive Secretariat for Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation at the Ministry of Health.

The Council of Europe views the eradication of organ trafficking as a shared responsibility for the global community. To this end, the Santiago de Compostela Convention is open to accession by all states worldwide, offering a unique legal framework to combat this crime.

The discussions focussed on concrete priorities across the American region, including identifying key regional partners to amplify the Convention’s impact; defining outreach priorities to encourage new signatures and ratifications of the Convention; and coordinating next steps for collaborative promotion.

This dialogue underscores the Convention’s aims: promoting public health, protecting victims’ rights, fostering national and international cooperation and strengthening preventive measures against organ trafficking.