Major Obstacles Remain for Human Rights
(Washington, DC, February 19, 2008) – Despite Fidel Castro's resignation
today, Cuba's abusive legal and institutional mechanisms continue to
deprive Cubans of their basic rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The
counterproductive US embargo policy continues to give the Cuban
government a pretext for human rights violations.
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"Even if Castro no longer calls the shots, the repressive machinery he
constructed over almost half a century remains fully intact," said José
Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "Until that
changes, it's unlikely there will be any real progress on human rights
in Cuba."
For almost five decades, Cuba has restricted nearly all avenues of
political dissent. Cuban citizens have been systematically deprived of
their fundamental rights to free expression, privacy, association,
assembly, movement, and due process of law. Tactics for enforcing
political conformity have included police warnings, surveillance,
short-term detentions, house arrests, travel restrictions, criminal
prosecutions, and politically motivated dismissals from employment.
Cuba's legal and institutional structures have been at the root of its
rights violations. The rights to freedom of expression, association,
assembly, movement, and the press are strictly limited under Cuban law.
By criminalizing enemy propaganda, the spreading of "unauthorized news,"
and insult to patriotic symbols, the government curbs freedom of speech
under the guise of protecting state security. The courts are not
independent; they undermine the right to fair trial by restricting the
right to a defense, and frequently fail to observe the few due process
rights available to defendants under domestic law.
"Since Fidel Castro first turned power over to his brother, the Cuban
government has occasionally indicated a willingness to reconsider its
approach to human rights," said Vivanco. "But so far it hasn't taken any
of the steps needed to end its abusive practices."
In December 2007, the Cuban government announced its intention to ratify
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The
ratification, if it occurs, would represent an important break from
Cuba's longstanding refusal to recognize these core human rights treaties.
However, the Cuban government still needs to take concrete steps to
decriminalize political dissent, Human Rights Watch said. Specifically,
it should unconditionally release all political dissidents. It should
also repeal the provisions of the penal code that provide the basis for
gross violations of human rights.
"This would be a good time for the US government to revisit its failed
embargo policy," said Vivanco. "By lifting the embargo, Washington could
deprive Raúl Castro of the underdog image that his brother exploited so
effectively."
For more than four decades, the US government has used Cuba's dismal
rights record to justify a sweeping economic embargo aimed at toppling
the Castro regime. Yet the policy did nothing to bring change to Cuba.
On the contrary, it helped consolidate Castro's hold on power by
providing his government with an excuse for its problems and a
justification for its abuses. Moreover, because the policy was imposed
in such a heavy-handed fashion, it enabled Castro to garner sympathy
abroad, neutralizing international pressure rather than increasing it.
"The Bush administration should end the trade and travel bans that hurt
both ordinary Cubans and their Cuban-American relatives," Vivanco said.
"After a half century of ineffective policies, it's time for the US to
adopt a more pragmatic, multilateral approach in pressing Cuba to
respect political freedoms."
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