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Home , Human rights in Cuba, Pedro Luis Boitel

PART 5

while President remains nominally in 5.7 power, it is important that governments and international organisations continue to raise Introduction awareness of the situation there. This gives hope to the victims of human rights abuses Cuba’s human rights problems differ from those of and all those calling for change. countries where state complicity in death or occurs, but the longevity and widespread nature of the repression of the Cuban people remain a valid Current concerns source of international concern. Cuba is a one-party state. No opposition to the government is tolerated The situation in Cuba today gives rise to a number and citizens are denied basic civil, political and of areas of concern: economic rights. The Cuban government claims that restrictions on individual liberties are necessary to ■ the of political prisoners and lack of counter internal complicity with a perceived threat international access to prisoners in general; of invasion by the US, but international human ■ systematic denial of the Cuban people’s political, rights bodies dispute this assertion. At the same civil and economic freedoms; time, the Cuban government has made advances in the fields of healthcare, and gender ■ government harassment and intimidation of equality in the face of economic difficulties. ; and

■ the death penalty. Since the delegation of power from Fidel Castro to Raul Castro in July 2006, there had been no As the Cuban government retains tight control over indication of a significant change of policy on information about its prisons, it is difficult to put an human rights. However, on 10 December 2007, exact figure on the number of political prisoners. Foreign Minister Pérez Roque announced that Cuba However, recognised at least would sign the international covenants on civil and 69 “prisoners of conscience” in Cuba in its 2007 political rights and on economic and social and report. In their July 2007 report, the Cuban cultural rights in early 2008. (Fidel Castro Commission for Human Rights and National subsequently made prominently publicised remarks Reconciliation (the standard unofficial source of casting some doubt on whether this would happen.) human rights information inside Cuba) cited 246 While signature would be an encouraging step cases. The number of political prisoners decreased forwards, Cuba would have to follow signature with slightly in 2007 due to prisoners completing their ratification and, most importantly, implementation. sentences and, in a small number of cases, the Although significant change in Cuba is unlikely granting of conditional release for medical reasons. Francisco Chaviano, Cuba’s longest-serving prisoner of conscience, who featured in last year’s annual report, was granted conditional release in August 2007 after serving 13 years.

Significantly, in a January 2007 report, Christine Chanet, Personal Representative of the UN High Commissioner for , noted that 59 of the 75 dissidents detained during the spring 2003 opposition crackdown remain in prison, including nearly all the members of prominent civil society leader Oswaldo Payá’s group who were arrested at the time. Worryingly, individuals also continue to be detained without trial and there have been reports of summary trials. The Cuban government continues to arrest dissidents on the grounds of “dangerousness”, defined in the penal Cuba’s interim president Raul Castro greets Aleida March, the widow of revolutionary code as the “special proclivity of a person to commit leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara, during the official ceremony to commemorate the 40th crimes, demonstrated by his conduct in manifest anniversary of el Che’s death on 8 October 2007 at the Revolution Square in the eastern contradiction of socialist norms”. Cuban village of Santa Clara.

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We are concerned about prison conditions. Unofficial human rights organisations, including the Organization of Political Prisoners, described how several prisons in Cuba routinely use punishment cells where detainees had been beaten and denied clothing, food, water and sanitation until they were so ill they required medical treatment. In her 2007 report, Mme Chanet noted that several prisoners had been on particularly stressful hunger strikes. Mme Chanet also expressed alarm at the allegations of ill treatment in detention submitted by families of prisoners, as well as the fact that food and hygiene are substandard, and medical care either unavailable or TOP: A group of “Ladies in inappropriate. Relatives encounter many problems White”, wives of Cuban when trying to arrange visits to prisoners, who are political prisoners, march often located far from their homes. Unfortunately, after a Sunday morning mass at the Santa Rita the Cuban authorities have shown little willingness church in . to address these problems and continue to deny access to prisons by the International Committee of LEFT: Oswaldo Payá, leader the Red Cross. of the opposition Christian Liberation Movement, The incidence of government harassment of gives a press conference at his house in Havana opposition figures, referred to as “acts of on 22 November 2007. repudiation”, has fluctuated over the year but has Payá announced the creation also changed into less visible types of intimidation. of the “Civic Committee This has included ultimatums and death threats of Reconciliation and against leading dissidents, targeting of dissidents’ Dialogue”, which seeks to impel a peaceful campaign families and harassment of dissidents in the to achieve free elections provinces. There are continued allegations of more and to look for democratic violent , including the beating of changes in the island. activist Guillermo Fariñas and the four-day blockade of the home of the blind lawyer, Juan Carlos González Leiva. Although the Cuban government claims that these incidents are spontaneous, state security forces and the police are often passive observers during these attacks, and have been article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human known to collude with the attackers. Rights. Exit visas are compulsory, prohibitively expensive and subject to government authorisation. It is important to note that the Cuban government The government exercises particularly rigid controls imposes restrictions on the population as a whole, over opposition figures and those working in the as well as on opposition figures. This is particularly health sector. true of freedom of expression and information. The state rigorously controls all media outlets in While the death penalty remains in place in the Cuba, including the internet, making it effectively penal code, it has not been applied since 2003 impossible for any views other than those officially when three people were executed for attempting to approved to be heard. The Cuban government hijack a ferry to flee to the US, even though no one denies its citizens the right to receive and impart was injured. In two recent cases of a hijacking and information and ideas through any media and a prison riot, the death penalty was not applied, regardless of frontiers as guaranteed by article even though the cases involved loss of life. 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ordinary cannot legally gain access to foreign television or the printed press. The government also denies citizens the right to leave and return to their own country in contravention of

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Cuban Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, Antonio Cuban Elections Carricarte. On 12 November 2007, Meg Munn raised similar concerns to a delegation of Cuban Cuba is in a process of municipal, provincial MPs including Jaime Crombet Hernández-Baquero, and national elections, which will be concluded Vice-President of the National Assembly of People’s in spring 2008. Voting is direct and well Power. The British Embassy in Havana also organised. Under the system, “the people”, not maintains systematic contact with civil society the party, propose candidates. In practice, the figures and human rights defenders and closely complex system of nominations provides some monitors the situation throughout the country. choice in terms of individual candidacy at municipal level, but effectively ensures that it is impossible for anyone outside the ambit of the Forward look regime to be formally nominated. Campaigning and offering manifestos or programmes to Consensus among academics and government alike the voters by candidates are not allowed. At is that we are unlikely to witness early significant provincial and national level, candidates have improvements in the human rights situation in to be nominated quasi-officially or by the Cuba. The majority of opposition figures in Cuba municipal assemblies, and voters are strongly agree. In the longer term, there is speculation over encouraged to vote for all candidates. There whether Raul Castro – Fidel’s brother and acting are as many seats as there are candidates, and head of state in Cuba – would be likely to instigate only those who receive less than half the votes reform, though it is suggested that this may be cast are not elected. Several groups limited to some economic reorganisation. have issued calls for genuine multiparty elections. Oswaldo Payá launched the “All In terms of UK policy, we support the exploratory Cubans Forum”, which calls for specific reforms discussion between the EU and the Cuban of the electoral law in order to permit greater government in September 2007 and hope it will political freedoms. For more information, see develop to allow for a genuine dialogue on human www.cubaminrex.cu/English/Focus_On/ rights issues. The UK and EU will also seek to Democracy%20in%20Cuba.htm and www. intensify engagement with the Cuban government oswaldopaya.org/es/cuban-forum-campaign. and wider civil society.

UK action Human rights form a central element of the UK’s policy towards Cuba. This is in line with the 1996 EU common position, which states that “full co-operation with Cuba will depend upon improvements in human rights and ”. European ministers reaffirmed this policy in June 2007 and “urged the Cuban government to unconditionally release all political prisoners”. The European Council also noted that the human rights situation had not fundamentally changed, despite a decrease in the number of political prisoners and acts of harassment.

UK ministers and officials regularly voice concerns about human rights with the Cuban authorities. On 30 April 2007, Ian McCartney, then FCO Minister responsible for international human rights, expressed his concern about political prisoners and other human rights issues during a meeting with

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