Civil Society, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

RIGHTS-CUBA: Dissident Group Sees No Improvement

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jul 6 2007 (IPS) - The temporary retirement of President Fidel Castro on Jul. 31, 2006 has resulted in no change in "the civil, political, economic and certain cultural rights situation," which continues to be "unfavourable," a dissident human rights group said on Thursday.

A briefing document given to foreign correspondents by the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) describes the human rights situation in Cuba as the worst in the Western hemisphere.

According to the Commission, rights that have been violated include "the freedoms of opinion, association, information, the press, and expression, and the right to organise unions or political organisations, or to work outside the exploitative tutelage of the totalitarian state."

Signed by dissident human rights observers Elizardo Sánchez and Carlos J. Menéndez, the document was distributed together with the opposition organisation&#39s six-month report on political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, a list it compiles from information from the prisoners&#39 families.

The CCDHRC said that the downward trend in the number of political prisoners was maintained in the first half of this year. The "partial list" of cases documented by the Commission has fallen from 283 registered prisoners at the end of 2006 to 246 on Jun. 30, 2007.

The report said it was "inexplicable" that there should be over 200 political prisoners in a country like Cuba, classed among those with "the least political violence in a large part of the planet."

It adds that a total of 73 "prisoners of conscience," recognised as such by Amnesty International, are still serving sentences. This figure includes over a dozen people who have been conditionally released on "leave of absence" from prison by the authorities for health reasons.

According to the CCDHRN, the general Cuban prison population may have fallen over the last two years because of a government policy which seeks to apply alternative penalties to prison sentences. The total number of common criminals in prison could be between 60,000 and 80,000, they said.

Since the start of the interim government of Raúl Castro, who is the Armed Forces minister and the president&#39s brother, "not a single step has been taken towards modernising the legal system, including outright decriminalisation of (the exercise of) all civil, political, economic and cultural rights," the CCDHRN said.

The Cuban government does not recognise the legitimacy of reports of this kind, nor of organisations like the CCDHRN, which according to the authorities have no real influence in the country and only exist because they are promoted and financed by the United States government.

On the subject of human rights, the Foreign Ministry points to Cuba&#39s social achievements, and the guarantees enjoyed by its 11.2 million people in the areas of education, health and employment.

The absence of other rights are officially attributed to the country&#39s need to defend itself against a foreign government (the United States) that promotes internal unrest from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, and publicly declares its desire to support a change of government and system on the island.

"The mutual hostility between Washington and Havana, including unilateral (and therefore illegal) economic and financial sanctions imposed by the U.S., continue to feed a negative geopolitical context, which has only led to a worsening of the situation," the CCDHRN document says.

One episode of this confrontation concluded on Jun. 18, when the United Nations Human Rights Council removed Cuba from the list of countries under observation by the Council. This was hailed by the Foreign Ministry in Havana as a "resounding" diplomatic victory for Cuba.

The Cuban case had been assigned to rapporteur Christine Chanet, the personal representative of Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who had pursued it since 2002, but the Cuban government systematically rejected her mission reports because, it said, they were tainted with disinformation supplied by the White House.

Although the government is showing no sign of changes in its relations with dissidents, important steps have been taken in recent months to promote the rights of sexual minorities, including the gay, lesbian, transvestite, transsexual and transgender communities.

A draft law presented to the highest levels of the governing Communist Party includes legal recognition of same-sex unions, the right of same-sex couples to adopt children, and the right of lesbians to use assisted reproduction services.

Meanwhile, a current government strategy is attempting to guarantee social equality for transvestite, transsexual and transgender persons, including changes of identity where necessary, and access to hormonal treatments and to sex change operations.

Moderate dissident sectors construe these efforts as a "positive step" that shows that the authorities are beginning to accept differences.

"It&#39s an important precedent for recognising all differences, including ideological differences and differences of opinion," Manuel Cuesta Morúa, a spokesman for Arco Progresista, a coalition of social-democrat groups, told IPS.

In recent months, Cuba has also made the requirements for travelling abroad more flexible, although this applies only to certain sectors of the Cuban population.

Formerly, a letter of invitation was required in order to apply for an exit permit. This will now not be required for persons born abroad or married to foreigners and their closest relatives, nor for those travelling for medical treatment, for humanitarian reasons, to attend unofficial events or to receive legacies or prizes.

"All of these are good things, but they&#39re limited, and not enough… They aren&#39t indications of thoroughgoing, irreversible reforms of the penal system," Sánchez said in a brief telephone conversation with IPS.

"Cuba is still a police state and its nature is reflected in nearly every aspect of national life," the CCDHRN document says, and it cites regulation of self-employment, limited access to the Internet and penalties for those who illegally try to tune in to foreign television stations as examples.

Cuesta Morúa was less dismissive, and said he perceived a trend towards "relaxation" in the field of human rights, specifically in the treatment of dissident sectors, compared with the first half of 2006.

"Acts of repudiation" (aggressive demonstrations by government supporters) against dissidents have ceased, and dissidents can now hold press conferences, and even meetings, without harassment, he said.

"Before Jul. 31st last year, all these things were rather difficult. I wouldn&#39t say that the improvement is absolute, but there has been a trend towards a relative improvement of the human rights situation," Cuesta Morúa said.