Dear High Representative Borrell,
THE EU MUST RESPOND TO THE MAGNITUDE OF CUBA’S HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS AT THE JOINT COUNCIL
Ahead of the forthcoming European Union (EU)-Cuba Joint Council on 26
May, our organizations are writing to urge you to ensure that human
rights remain at the very centre of the EU’s relations with Cuba, at a
crucial moment for the country’s human rights defenders.
Our organizations continue to document [1]
the Cuban authorities’ ongoing crackdown on the rights to freedom of
expression, peaceful assembly and association in the country, stifling
dissenting voices and targeting human rights defenders. Cuban human
rights defenders face harassment and repression by the Cuban authorities
and remain excluded from spaces where international actors and the
Cuban government take decisions that affect their work and the wider
human rights situation in the country.
The Cuban government’s approach has long been marked by restrictive
laws, censorship and intimidation tactics, with ever increasing
machinery to control the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful
assembly, while individuals defending human rights face unfair trials
and arbitrary detention. This trend has only increased with the
targeting of protesters since the demonstrations of 11-12 July 2021,
when thousands of people took to the streets across the island to demand
a change in living conditions in Cuba in a way that has not been
witnessed in decades.
The Cuban authorities have refused to allow EU and member state
diplomats, international media or human rights organizations to monitor
the trials of those detained during the July 11 protests. Family members
and detainees report various due process violations, while artists,
intellectuals and others with alternative ideas are subjected to
alarming levels of surveillance and restrictions on their freedom of
movement. Peaceful protests as recently as in September and October 2022
are reported to have been met with police and military deployment to
suppress them. Cuba has expanded internet access but as part of a
government policy to continuously silence dissent, the authorities
control and interrupt web access at politically sensitive times,
regularly blocking messaging apps in contravention of international
human rights law.
Three prominent activists, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara [2] , Maykel ‘’Osorbo’’ Castillo Pérez and Jose Daniel Ferrer García [3]
, remain in jail in Cuba as of May 2023 solely as a result of their
convictions and the peaceful exercise of their human rights. Justicia
11J, a group formed in response to the repression of protesters in July
2021, records 1,812 individuals arrested since the start of the
protests, with 768 remaining in prison as of 11 May 2023.
Ahead of the Joint Council, Cuban civil society has likewise raised
many of these concerns, including the situation of independent civil
society, prisoners of conscience and others detained for political
reasons, the respect of the rights to freedom of expression,
association, peaceful assembly and movement – as well as both political
participation in Cuba and the participation of independent
civil society in EU-Cuba relations.
In March 2022, the EU responded
to the “disproportionate sentences” of the July 2021 protesters,
calling on the authorities to guarantee and protect the rights to
express dissent and protest. The EU declaration
on the first anniversary of the protests also expressed concern about
due process and disproportionate sentences in response to the protests,
urging the Cuban authorities to release all those detained solely on the
grounds of exercising their rights and to dialogue with the Cuban
people about their legitimate concerns both about deteriorating living
conditions and about their human rights.
At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in November 2022, the EU reiterated
these calls, urging Cuba to grant its citizens all their rights, ratify
the UN Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), extend a standing invitation to all
UN Special Procedures and open spaces for a constructive and inclusive
dialogue, without preconditions, with the whole spectrum of civil
society actors on the island.
According to the 2016 Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement
(PDCA) between the EU and Cuba, the Joint Council works to “oversee the
fulfilment of the objectives of this Agreement and supervise its
implementation”, including “respect for and the promotion of democratic
principles, respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms as
laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the core
international human-rights instruments and their optional protocols
which are applicable to the Parties, and respect for the rule of law
constitute an essential element of this Agreement.” The crackdown on
human rights in Cuba, and in particular the targeting of protesters and
human rights defenders since July 2021, stand in clear contradiction to
these stated commitments.
The magnitude of Cuba’s human rights crisis must be matched by a
proportional response from the EU and its member states to address the
scope and severity of the situation and to establish concrete human
rights benchmarks in their relations with Cuba.
At the Joint Council, we urge you to lead the EU and its member states in robustly engaging the Cuban authorities to:
- Immediately and unconditionally release all those detained
solely for exercising their human rights, including the rights to
freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The EU and its member
states should raise the cases of José Daniel Ferrer García, Luis Manuel
Otero Alcántara, Maykel ‘’Osorbo’’ Castillo Pérez, Aymara Nieto, Sissi
Abascal Zamora, Donaida Pérez Paseiro and dissident artists Richard Zamora Brito “El Radikal”, Maria Cristina Garrido Rodriguez and Randy Arteaga- Rivera.
- End the ongoing surveillance and arbitrary detentions of human
rights defenders, activists and journalists, including the use of house
arrest against dissenting voices.
- Cease the excessive use of force and arbitrary detentions
during protests and refrain from internet interruptions that hinder the
rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, expression and access to
information. The authorities must pro-actively facilitate peaceful
assemblies, protect peaceful protests, end all use of unlawful force
against peaceful protesters and guarantee protesters’ safety.
- Establish a national legislative framework to safeguard the
right to protest; in parallel, repeal and amend repressive and/or
vaguely worded offences in the new penal code, as well as laws that have
been misused against human rights defenders, activists, protesters and
members of independent civil society.
- Prevent and combat discrimination of any kind and promote the
respect, protection and guarantee of the human rights of all, including
women, Afro-descendants and the LGBTIQ+ community.
- Promptly establish a comprehensive law on gender-based violence
defining protocols to prevent and address the growing problem of
feminicides and violence against women and girls in Cuba, including an
efficient, public and transparent institutional protection and security
mechanism for survivors.
- Ensure access to independent human rights organizations to
monitor and report on the human rights situation, and likewise extend
standing invitations to UN Special Rapporteurs, in particular those
focusing on freedoms of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and
association, and human rights defenders, facilitating their visits as
soon as possible.
- Address the population’s need for greater access to food and
medicine and act to fulfil the population’s economic, social, and
cultural rights – human rights concerns that were at the core of the
recent and ongoing protests. The EU and its member states should call on
the Cuban authorities to increase their efforts to ensure these rights
and support genuine efforts to do so.
- Ratify the ICCPR, ICESCR and the Inter-American Convention on
Human Rights as soon as possible, using the forthcoming Universal
Periodic Review (UPR) of the country’s human rights record as an
opportunity to re-affirm Cuba’s commitments to all rights.
- Use the opportunity of the forthcoming EU-CELAC summit in July
to step-up engagement on human rights with Cuba and across Latin America
and the Caribbean in line with calls from civil society in the region and in the EU.
- Make sure that independent Cuban and European human rights and
civil society organizations are fully consulted, and their participation
proactively facilitated in all decision-making that affects them –
including the civil society events connected to the EU-Cuba human rights
dialogue, bilateral cooperation and the implementation of the PDCA.
- Fully use the mechanisms defined in the PDCA to ensure that the
Cuban government complies with its commitments to respect human rights.
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