Marco Abarca is a Costa Rican human rights advocate with particular interest in socio-economic development. He is an Honorary Member of the National Commission for Human Values of Costa Rica. Marco became involved in human rights advocacy during the 1980s and 1990s working for the Central American Human Rights Committee; an NGO that lead the representation of vulnerable groups of population during a period of low intensity civil wars in that region. He is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Law School of the University of Puerto Rico and as researcher for the Civil Action and Education Corporation. At these institutions he is primarily dedicated to conduct applied research in public interest law and community development programs aiming to curtail drug-driven criminalization of adults and youth.

He is a published author in areas of human values and sustainable development. In 2001, the University of Costa Rica published his first book, Fruits of Perseverance: the National System for Human Values, and in 2003 published his second book entitled Meshing Global Policies to a Community Perspective: Corporate Social Responsibility. Marco holds an MSt in International Human Rights Law, University of Oxford; PgD in Development Studies, Institute of Social Studies The Hague; MBA, Universidad Interamericana de Costa Rica; and LLB, Universidad Autónoma de Centroamérica.