Cuba impairs the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, blocks travel by human rights defenders to Geneva Cuba Archive April 12, 2018
On Friday, April 13 th, the pre-session to the third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Cuba by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will take place in Geneva. Two human rights defenders from Cuba scheduled to speak were not allowed to travel by the Cuban government. Airport authorities in Havana prevented Dora Mesa, of the Cuban Association for Childhood Education, and Juan Antonio Madrazo, of the Committee for Racial Integration, from leaving the country. In the history of UPR pre-sessions, only three other states, Bahrain, Sudan, and South Sudan have prevented scheduled speakers to travel. At least three other Cuban human rights defenders who planned to participate in UPR-related activities in Geneva, including Daisy Artiles of the Ladies in White, were not allowed to travel. At the same time, many others who had planned to attend activities surrounding the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, April 13-14 were prevented from traveling there. Although most Cubans have been able to travel abroad since 2013 following changes in Cuba’s migration law, travel restrictions on members of Cuba’s civil society have again become endemic. The longstanding impunity the international community has awarded Cuba, including failing to hold it accountable for not honoring its UPR commitments, fosters these arbitrary actions. The UPR pre-sessions are organized by the Geneva-based UPR-Info to assist UN member states in reviewing the human rights’ record of states under review and help guide their questions and recommendations. This is the only mechanism within the UN system to hold states to such account; each of the 193 members states of the UN is reviewed every five years. Five civil society representatives were selected to provide pre-session testimony April 13 th on the human rights situation in Cuba. Cuba Archive’s Executive Director, Maria Werlau, will deliver a statement and answer questions posed by representatives of diplomatic missions. Cuba Archive prepared a report for the UPR process on violations of the right to life, submitted in conjunction with Cubalex and Human Rights Foundation last October. While in Geneva, Ms. Werlau is also holding private meetings with representatives of several states and UN Special Procedures to encourage a more meaningful review of Cuba. Alejandro González Raga, of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, and José Fornaris Ramos, of the Pro-Freedom of the Press Association, are also scheduled to speak at the pre-session. Other non-governmental organizations that submitted stakeholder reports to the UNHRC’s UPR Working Group on Cuba include: Apretaste, Buró de Derechos Humanos, Cadal, Civicus, Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional, Cubalex, Directorio Democrático Cubano, Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, Instituto Patmos, and Race & Equality. These reports inform UN member states on the human rights situation on the island from a civil society perspective to help inform de UPR process. The UPR Working Group will host the discussion on Cuba on May 16 th in Geneva at which only UN member states can participate; a report of the entire review process, including recommendations by the states, will be issued sometime later. The UPR began in 2008 and is currently on its third cycle. 42 States are reviewed each year during three sessions dedicated to 14 States each. See more on the UPR here. The UPR Working Group consists of the 47-member states of the UN Human Rights Council elected by a majority of the General Assembly (all UN members) having purportedly taken into account their “contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights.” Cuba is currently serving its second three-year term in the Council and will not be eligible for immediate re-election after 2019. See Cuba Archive's report on Cuba’s membership in the UNHRC.
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