Introduction
1. CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide) is a human rights organisation specialising in the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all. This joint submission, together with Impulso18, focuses on the situation of FoRB in Cuba ahead of the country’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
2. During the reporting period, religious associations of all types, including Afro-Cuban, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and Roman Catholic groups, registered and unregistered groups, including those belonging to the Cuba Council of Churches (CCC), all reported FoRB violations. Religious leaders and individuals who offered spiritual or material support to families of political prisoners were particularly targeted. A new slate of increasingly repressive laws further sought to bring the population under government control. While some Cubans appear more cautious or have seen no other option than to go into exile, there remain many who, even in the face of threats, harassment, and the possibility of imprisonment, continue to speak out against injustice.
Recommendations from previous cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
3. During its third UPR Cuba received 356 recommendations, of which 226 were supported and 130 noted. Cuba accepted all four FoRB-specific recommendations, calling on the government to ‘continue to promote the full right to freedom of religion’, to guarantee ‘the right of everyone to freedom of worship and not to profess any religion, in accordance with the Constitution’, ‘to foster good relations with the different religious institutions’; and finally to ‘continue advocating in the international fora for the need to combat Islamophobia and discriminatory stereotypes based on religion, particularly in the context of the fight against terrorism.’ Unfortunately, despite a commitment to implement these recommendations, CSW has continued to receive reports of FoRB violations and a continuing crackdown on religious or belief groups.
4. In addition, CSW regrets Cuba’s decision to note multiple recommendations to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Rome Statute, to ensure the right to a fair trial, and recommendations to cease the practice of harassment, threats and arbitrary and pre-trial detention or house arrests of journalists, human rights defenders (HRDs), and those exercising their right to freedom of assembly and association through peaceful protest, and freedom of expression. We were further concerned by Cuba’s failure to commit to improving ‘transparency and due process in the justice system by ensuring that arrested individuals are promptly informed of the reasons, have access to legal representation of their choosing, are afforded public hearings within a reasonable timeframe, and are presumed innocent until proven guilty’, as recommended by Canada.
To read the submission in full, you can download the pdf here.