CUBA: Opposition Launches New Human Rights Scheme at Home, Abroad

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Aug 20 2002 (IPS) - A coalition of political opposition groups in Cuba announced Tuesday the beginning of a broad debate — to involve Cubans on the island and abroad — about a Human Rights Charter that could ultimately serve as the basis for a new Constitution.

The promoters of this “consultation” told a press conference that the initiative is not intended to be political nor an alternative to the Varela Project, a dissident proposal that seeks changes in the socialist-run country’s government system.

“Varela is a political project,” pointed out Fernando Sánchez, of the Democratic Solidarity Party, adding that the human rights debate could include representatives from the ruling Communist Party.

“Human rights have no ideology and they benefit socialists, communists, liberals, Christian democrats and social democrats alike,” Sánchez said. His party, like all opposition groups in Cuba, operate outside the law, as the Communist Party is the only one that is legally recognised.

Promoting this new debate is the moderate opposition’s Reflection Panel, made up of the Socialist Democratic Current, Movement for Democracy and Independent Nationalist Action Movement, among other dissident parties.

The text, which consists of 47 articles, will be presented for the consideration of Cuban citizens residing on the Caribbean island and those living abroad, in a process that is to last until Dec 10.

“It is a draft document, so Cuban citizens can write or rewrite the issue. To offer a finalised proposal to the people, without prior consultation, would constitute disrespect for their individual abilities and autonomy,” said a promoter of the initiative.

Some 600 activists spread throughout this country of 11.2 million will facilitate discussion of the document and gather opinions on the text, but will not take down information that could be used to identify the individuals, due to fear of political reprisals.

For the process, 109 information offices have been set up so that citizens can learn about the initiative, express their views, propose amendments or even new approaches.

In the end, a committee will put together a final draft of the Charter based on the input received over the coming months, said Manuel Cuesta Morúa, of the Socialist Democratic Current, and moderator of the Panel.

He added that the aim is to gather the opinions of at least 30,000 people. If the project unfolds successfully, in 2003 the organisers will be collecting signatures in support of the final text.

“We want those who have participated to publicly take ownership of the Charter and then support a petition for dialogue with the authorities, both local and national, about human rights,” said Cuesta.

The document emerging from the process, commented the activist, might serve as “the foundation upon which a future Cuban Constitution should be built, one that must not be violated or distorted.”

The draft Charter lists in its first 35 articles the individual, social, cultural and economic rights it seeks to protect, and in articles 36 through 45 it covers the citizens’ duties to the nation, community and humanity.

These rights and obligations “are limited only by the rights and obligations of others, the provision of security for all and the just requirements of general welfare and democratic development,” states the text in its concluding chapter.

The initiative states that Cuba is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but says it is “necessary to define the rights and obligations in the specific conditions” of the island, governed for the last 42 years by President Fidel Castro.

“Every Cuban has the right to life. No Cuban may be condemned to death or executed,” says the first of the articles related to the “rights of humans”.

National legislation currently includes approximately 100 crimes that call for this maximum punishment, applied in “exceptional” cases, and never against women, nor against persons younger than 20, stated experts consulted by IPS.

The Castro government has defended the death penalty as a form of deterrence against crime, in the context of what it describes as “an escalation of United States aggressions and the existence of terrorist groups operating against Cuba.”

Nevertheless, Castro himself fuelled conjectures late last year about possibly abolishing the death penalty, when he publicly acknowledged that a group of jurists was studying alternatives.

The new project put forth by the opposition groups also includes the right of citizens to freedom of movement, including “travel and residence within all Cuban national territory, freely leaving the country and returning when desired.”

A 1997 decree strictly regulates internal migration to Havana, and all Cuban citizens must obtain an “exit permit” to travel abroad.

“Every Cuban has the right to free economic initiative, as such, they can establish productive or commercial enterprises individually or collectively, in partnership with fellow Cubans or with foreigners or the state,” says article 34 of the draft text.

Recognition of that principle would require a reform of the Constitution, which currently states that the economic system prevailing in Cuba “is based on socialist property of all peoples of the fundamental means of production and in the suppression of exploitation of man by fellow man.”

Other articles defend the right to labour strikes, of individuals and groups to create teaching centres (Cuban education is now completely government-run) and free association.

Cuesta said the aim of the consultation is to achieve “respect for all rights” in Cuba, but added that the procedure to demand such respect also requires that the Cuban people are aware of those rights.