CSW has today released a report on the situation of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Cuba’s prisons which finds that FoRB is not only systematically violated throughout the country’s prison system but is also weaponised and used as a coercion and punishment tactic on prisoners, both common and political.

The report, which is based on interviews with 181 prisoners serving sentences in prisons in five different provinces, details how the Cuban government consistently ignores the Nelson Mandela Rules (the United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners). Prisoners are routinely denied their right to be visited by leaders associated with their religious group or any religious group at all; most are barred from keeping religious literature, including a Bible, and none are permitted to wear specific apparel where it is required by their religion.

Prisoners are not allowed to congregate with others of the same religious beliefs in order to practise their religion, while those who attempt to perform religious rituals or even to pray on their own report being threatened, verbally abused, and in some cases physically stopped from doing so.

The report claims that Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior (MININT), which includes the Departments of State Security and Prisons and acts as the country’s internal intelligence apparatus, views FoRB not as a right but as a ‘benefit’ which can be extended or withdrawn arbitrarily and is therefore often misused as a pressure tactic to coerce prisoners into cooperating with the authorities in different ways.

To coincide with the release of the report, CSW has produced a video that features interviews with the relatives of several political prisoners who are currently serving sentences for their participation in peaceful protests that swept the island on 11 July 2021, including Duniesky Ruiz Cañizares, Roberto Pérez Fonseca, brothers Jorge and Nadir Martín Perdomo, and Anibal Yasiel Palau Jacinto de Mayaquebe.

Also interviewed in the film is Afro-Cuban religious leader Donaida Pérez Paseiro, who was detained alongside her husband Loreto Hernández García – also an Afro-Cuban religious leader – for their participation in the July 2021 protests. Ms Pérez Paseiro had been released from prison in January 2025 as part of a mass amnesty, but was re-imprisoned on 11 June after she refused the authorities’ demands that she stop making public statements critical of the government. She is now expected to serve her full eight-year sentence; Mr Hernández García was not released as part of the mass amnesty in January and continues to serve a seven-year sentence.

CSW’s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: ‘The systematic denial of the right to freedom of religion or belief in Cuba’s prisons sits within a wider context of serious human rights violations and severe economic hardship across the island. CSW continues to call on the international community to press the Cuban government to release all political prisoners immediately and without condition, to ensure full respect for the Nelson Mandela Rules for all prisoners, and ultimately to enact comprehensive reforms to bring an end to the country’s myriad intersecting crises.’

Notes to Editors:

1. Of the 181 prisoners who participated in the study, 102 were imprisoned for political reasons. Of the remaining 77 prisoners convicted of common crimes, two reported to CSW that they believed the reason for their imprisonment was political. All but one of those who consider themselves to be political prisoners said their detention was due to their participation in the protests of 11 July 2021. Those making up the study group were diverse in terms of their beliefs and were composed of Protestants from recognised and unrecognised religious associations, Roman Catholics, practitioners of Afro-Cuban religions, atheists and agnostics.
2. Click here to read CSW’s report on Freedom of Religion or Belief in Cuba’s Prisons (available in English and Spanish).
3. Click here to watch the video.