Amnesty International Report 2017/18

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

forcing women to undergo clandestine and 

unsafe abortions. In March, the Constitutional 

Court ruled against a challenge seeking the 

1978 Act to be declared unconstitutional and 

called on the national assembly to refrain 

from adopting any laws which would 

effectively ban abortions. In pharmacies, 

women and girls continued to be assessed 

against a questionnaire for which they had to 

reveal personal information about their sexual 

behaviour and reproductive health as a 

condition of accessing emergency 

contraceptives that were available without 

prescription, in violation of their right to 

privacy.

Roma children and women continued to be 

disadvantaged in accessing health care, and 

one fifth of this group lacked access to it 

altogether.

CUBA

Republic of Cuba

Head of state and government: Raúl Castro Ruz

Arbitrary detentions, discriminatory 

dismissals from state jobs, and harassment 

in self-employment continued to be used to 

silence criticism. Advances in education 

were undermined by ongoing online and 

offline censorship. Cuba remained mostly 

closed to independent human rights 

monitors.

BACKGROUND

Lifting of travel restrictions on Cubans in 

2013, removal of limits on receiving 

remittances, and the draw of visa-free 

countries continued to be important push 

factors for emigration. Cubans continued to 

leave in large numbers, despite the country’s 

changing international diplomacy, pushed by 

exceptionally low salaries and a tight web of 

control on freedom of expression.

In June, the administration of US President 

Donald Trump made an almost complete 

reversal of the USA’s political rhetoric towards 

Cuba. This reduced the chance of US 

Congress passing legislation to lift the 

economic embargo on Cuba, which 

continued to undermine economic, social 

and cultural rights.

At least 12 lawyers from the human rights 

organization Cubalex received asylum in the 

USA after being harassed, intimidated and 

threatened with imprisonment for their 

peaceful human rights work.

Cuba had not ratified the ICCPR or the 

ICESCR, both of which it signed in February 

2008, nor the Rome Statute of the ICC.

In December the government announced 

that President Raúl Castro would step down 

in April 2018.

ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS

Human rights and political activists continued 

to be harassed, intimidated and arbitrarily 

detained in high numbers. The Cuban 

Commission for Human Rights and National 

Reconciliation, a Cuban NGO not officially 

recognized by the state, recorded 5,155 

arbitrary detentions in 2017, compared to 

9,940 in 2016.

The Ladies in White, a group of female 

relatives of prisoners detained on politically 

motivated grounds, remained one of the 

primary targets of repression by the 

authorities. During detention, the women 

were often beaten by law enforcement 

officials and state security agents dressed as 

civilians.

In January, Danilo Maldonado Machado, 

known as El Sexto, was released from a 

maximum security prison. He had been 

arrested in November 2016, hours after the 

announcement of Fidel Castro’s death, for 

having written Se fue (“He’s gone”) on a wall 

in the capital, Havana.

1

In August, Yulier Perez, a graffiti artist 

known for painting dilapidated walls in 

Havana, was arbitrarily detained after months 

of intimidation and harassment from the 

authorities for freely expressing himself 

through his art.

2

PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE

The leader of the pro-democracy Christian 

Liberation Movement, Dr Eduardo Cardet 

Concepción, remained in prison having been 

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handed a three-year sentence in March for 

publicly criticizing Fidel Castro.

3

A family of four human rights defenders 

were detained in Holguín, southeast Cuba, 

for allegedly leaving their house during the 

period of state mourning for Fidel Castro in 

2016. The three siblings were given one-year 

prison sentences for “defamation of 

institutions, organizations and heroes and 

martyrs of the Republic of Cuba” and “public 

disorder”.

4

 Their mother was sentenced to 

house arrest. On 2 April, after a prolonged 

hunger strike, the three siblings were freed 

under conditional release, but they continued 

to be intimidated by the authorities.

Jorge Cervantes, a member of the political 

opposition group Patriotic Union of Cuba 

(UNPACU), was detained for approximately 

three months between May and August. 

Weeks before, UNPACU had published on its 

YouTube channel a video called “Horrors in 

jail” in which Jorge Cervantes interviewed a 

man who had allegedly been ill-treated in a 

Cuban prison, and a series of videos which 

alleged corruption by public officials.

5

The authorities continued to present 

trumped-up charges for common crimes as a 

way to harass and detain political opponents, 

meaning there were likely many more 

prisoners of conscience than documented.

WORKERS’ RIGHTS

The state continued to use its control – as the 

biggest employer in the country, and as a 

regulator of the private sector – as a way to 

stifle even the most subtle criticism of the 

government.

6

 Politically motivated and 

discriminatory dismissals continued to be 

used against those who criticized the 

government’s economic or political model. 

Workers pushed out of employment in the 

public sector for freely expressing themselves 

were often further harassed after entering the 

emerging but highly regulated self-

employment sector.

The de facto prohibition on independent 

trade unions limited workers’ ability to 

independently organize and appeal against 

discriminatory dismissals. The executive’s 

strong influence over the judiciary and 

lawyers limited effective recourse through the 

courts.

RIGHT TO EDUCATION

Undue restrictions in access to information 

and freedom of expression online followed 

decades of offline censorship, undermining 

Cuba’s advances in education.

Between May and mid-June, the Open 

Observatory of Network Interference 

conducted testing on a sample of websites in 

Cuba and found 41 sites blocked by the 

authorities. All the blocked sites expressed 

criticism of the Cuban government, reported 

on human rights issues, or discussed 

techniques to bypass censorship.

While the government continued to expand 

access to the internet, it prioritized access to 

the highly censored, government-curated 

national intranet. Access to the global 

internet remained prohibitively expensive for 

most Cubans.

7

INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY

In April, the UN Special Rapporteur on 

trafficking in persons conducted a visit to 

Cuba, and in July the country received the 

UN independent expert on human rights and 

international solidarity.

Most independent human rights 

organizations continued to be denied access 

to the country and to its prisons. Cuba 

remained the only country in the Americas 

region to deny access to Amnesty 

International.

1. Cuban graffiti artist released (

AMR 25/5545/2017

)

2. Urban artist at risk in Cuba (

AMR 25/7000/2017

)

3. Cuba: Activist sentenced to three years in jail after criticizing Fidel 

Castro (

News story

, 21 March)

4. Cuba: Prisoners of conscience on hunger strike (

AMR 25/6001/2017

)

5. Cuba: Opposition activist in maximum security prison (

AMR 

25/6671/2017

)

6. Cuba: “Your mind is in prison” – Cuba’s web of control over free 

expression and its chilling effect on everyday life (

AMR 

25/7299/2017

)

7. Cuba’s internet paradox: How controlled and censored internet risks 

Cuba’s achievements in education (

News story

, 29 August)

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