THE OFFICE OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The Office of Technical Assistance and International Affairs (O.A.T.R.I.) is part of the Bureau of the Attorney General of Costa Rica. The Office functions by means of delegation from the Attorney General as a body in charge of the process of extraditions and general international cooperation at a national and international level. The Office is also in charge of the Radio Program of the Prosecution Office, "Los Fiscales y Usted" (the Prosecutors and You). The O.A.T.R.I. is located in the second floor of the building of the Justice Tribunals of the First Judicial Circuit of San José. The telephone numbers for public service are (506) 2295-3458, (506) 2295-3449, (506) 2295-3862 and (506) 2295-4853. For emergencies the number is (506) 8841-1625. The fax numbers are as follows: 2223-2602 and (506) 2295-3449. The electronic address of the Office is oatri-mp@poder-judicial.go.cr. Inquiries are attended in Spanish, English, French and Italian.

 1.  Creation of the Office of Technical Assistance and International Affairs

The Attorney General in the administrative resolution number 53-2007, of the nine hours of the ten of September of two thousand and seven, united in one office, by the name of Office of Technical Assistance and International Affairs, whose initials are O.A.T.R.I., the work that until that date was carried out by the Attorney Office for International Links. The Superior Council of the Supreme Court in the session number 03-2008 which took place on January 15, 2008, article LXV, ordered the creation of the O.A.T.R.I. in the terms indicated by the Attorney General of the Republic.

On October 12, 2007, the Council of Public Prosecutor’s Offices of Central America decided to name the Bureau of the Attorney General of Costa Rica as the Technical Secretary of that Council, for two years. This responsibility has been carried out by the Office of Technical Assistance and International Affairs. Therefore during the year 2008 this office coordinated the sessions of the Public Prosecutors of Central America and the execution of its projects, included the project XCAS/26 against Human Traffic with the support of the United Nations Office Against Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Latin American Institute of the United Nations for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of the Delinquent (ILANUD).

  2.  The Office of Technical Assistance and International Affairs as the Central Authority of the Palermo Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime  and the Interamerican Convention against the Creation and Illegal Smuggling of Fire Arms, Bullets, Explosives and other Related Items.

After more than three years of conversations with the Secretaries of External Affairs and Cult, Secretaries of Justice and the General State Lawyer, the President of the Republic Oscar Arias Sánchez and the Secretary of Justice Laura Chincilla Miranda, established the decree Number 34501 -J, published in la Gaceta of May 7, 2008, which named the Costa Rican Bureau of the General Attorney as Central Authority for the United Nation Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, known as the Palermo Convention, ratified by Costa Rica since 2002. Also, the President of  the Republic and the Justice Secretary approved the decree number 34543-J, in which it establishes the General Attorney of the Republic as Central Authority to process the reciprocal judicial attention and the technical operation, included in the International Convention against the Creation and Illegal Smuggling of  Fire Arms, Bullets, Explosives and other Related Items. The Attorney General delegated to the OATRI, the responsibility of Central Authority in these two conventions by means of  the administrative resolution number 74-08 of June 9, 2008 and by means of the administrative resolution number 167-2008 of September 8, 2008.

The address as central authority of the Office of Technical Assistance and International Affairs is: Oficina de Asesoría Técnica y Relaciones Internacionales de la Fiscalía General de la República Segundo Piso del Edificio Tribunales de Justicia

Primer Circuito Judicial de San José. Barrio González Lahman. Apdo postal 10104-1003 San José (Office of Technical Support and International Relations of the Republic Attorney General Second Floor of the building of Justice Tribunals First Justice Circuit of San José. González Lahmann neighborhood. Postal Code 10104-1003 San José).

The email is: oatri-mp@poder-judicial.go.cr

  3. The Prosecutors and You radio program

Since May 19, 2008, the Public Prosecution Office started to operate the radio program named the ´´Prosecutors and You´´, a program which is transmitted once per week for half an hour on Mondays at 09:00 a.m. The radio station Columbia transmits the program which has a national reach. This program is conducted by the Office of Technical Assitance and International Affairs and its e-mail is  losfiscalesyusted@gmail.com to process the questions of those who use the prosecutions offices, as well as suggestions of topics of interest to inform during the program. Until August 17, 2009, 64 programs have taken place, in which diverse topics have been analyzed related to the work of the Public Prosecution Office. The radio program The Prosecutors and You has an educative function for the general population, report of results of the work and transparency of the Public Prosecution Office, consequently, it has become a tool by which the Bureau of the Attorney General fulfills its obligations established in the rules of Brasilia, in favor of the users and the rights of the vulnerable groups of the country.

  4. Staff

The Office of Technical Assistance and International Affairs is conformed by a Coordinating Prosecutor, two Auxiliar Prosecutors, a Lawyer, a Judicial Assistant and an Judicial Auxiliary.

 5. Telephones and Electronic direction

The telephone numbers of the Office of Technical Support and International Relations are as follows: (506)2295-3458, (506) 2295-3449, (506)2295-4495, (506)2295-3862 y (506)2295-4853. For emergencies the number is (506)8841-1625. The fax numbers are: (506)2223-2602 and (506) 2295-3449. Inquires are attended in Spanish, English, French and Italian. The electronic mail direction of the O.A.T.R.I. is oatrimp@poder-judicial.go.cr.