Many in Congress and the rest of the U.S. government care little for the human rights of Cubans. Fortunately, Amnesty International is not swayed by visions of agricultural sales and Cuban beach vacations but instead remains committed to highlighting the human rights situation on the island.
AI's new report, "The State of Human Rights in the World," includes blistering chapter on Cuba:
Republic of CubaHead of state and government: Raúl Castro Ruz
Freedoms of expression, association and assembly continued to be repressed. The number of short-term arrests increased sharply and politically motivated criminal prosecutions continued.
BACKGROUND
Amendments to the Migration Law which became effective in January 2013 facilitated travel abroad for all Cubans. Although government critics were allowed to travel abroad without hindrance, there were reports of documents and other materials being confiscated on their return to Cuba.
By the end of the year Cuba had still failed to ratify the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which it had signed in February 2008. The government did not respond to requests to visit Cuba from the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, sent in October 2013, or from the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, sent in March 2014. The authorities have not granted Amnesty International access to the country since 1990.
An exchange of prisoners between the USA and Cuba in December, and the announcement of the further release of over 50 political prisoners, raised hopes for significant human rights change amid efforts to normalize relations between the two countries, which decided to renew their diplomatic relations.
Freedom of expression, association, assembly and movement
Criticism of the government continued to be repressed and was routinely punished by various means, including arbitrary and short-term detentions, “acts of repudiation” (demonstrations led by government supporters with the participation of state security officials), intimidation, harassment and politically motivated criminal prosecutions. The judicial system remained firmly under political control, gravely undermining the right to trial by an independent and impartial tribunal.
Government critics, independent journalists and human rights activists were frequently detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly and movement. Activists were detained as a preventive measure to stop them from attending public demonstrations or private meetings.
There were increasing reports of government critics being threatened and also physically assaulted by state actors or individuals in their pay.
In June 2014, Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, director of the independent news agency Hablemos Press, received threatening telephone calls and was assaulted on the streets of the capital, Havana, by an unidentified individual, in what he believed was an attempt by the authorities to dissuade him from continuing his journalist activities.1
The government continued to exert control over all media, while access to information on the internet remained challenging due to technical limitations and restrictions on content. Independent journalists were systematically subjected to harassment, intimidation and detention for reporting information that was not sanctioned by the state apparatus.
In May, blogger Yoani Sánchez and her husband launched an online news website called 14 y medio. Shortly after it went live, the website was hacked and anyone accessing it from Cuba was redirected to a webpage which carried propaganda against Yoani Sánchez.
Read the whole thing here.
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