{"id":30073,"date":"2026-03-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/authorities-deny-pastors-son-conscientious-objection-to-military-service-6754\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:15:59","slug":"authorities-deny-pastors-son-conscientious-objection-to-military-service-6754","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/authorities-deny-pastors-son-conscientious-objection-to-military-service-6754\/","title":{"rendered":"Authorities deny pastor’s son conscientious objection to military service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Officials in Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba, are attempting to force the adult son of the pastors of an unregistered church to complete military service, in rejection of his request to be exempt due to his conscientious objection to taking up arms based on his religious beliefs.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a<\/span>video message<\/span><\/a> shared with CSW on 6 March, Pastor Ibrahim Rosabal Viamonte said: \u2018We just received news that they want to take my son to be part of this country’s repressive apparatus; to force him into military service. We have nothing to defend here. He is being summoned right now, summoned for military service\u2026 They did it by telephone and the man threatened to carry out an operation [against us]. And he has not simply threatened us with death here; if anything happens in [our house], they will come looking for us.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor Rosabal and his wife Nercy Cabrera Vasquez lead the unregistered Jehovah Our Justice Apostolic Ministry Church in Palma Soriano and have experienced years of threats and<\/span>harassment<\/span><\/a> at the hands of the authorities. Their son, David Rosabal Cabrera, 23, is married with two children.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a second message shared with CSW on 6 March, Pastor Rosabal reported that the local police chief had come to the family home and threatened to carry out an operation to take David away, \u2018whether he wants it or not\u2026 at nighttime, at dawn, whatever.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes made to Cuba\u2019s constitution following a referendum in February 2019 made it illegal to invoke conscientious objection with the \u2018intention of evading compliance with the law.\u2019 Cuba has signed but not ratified the<\/span>International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights<\/span><\/a> (ICCPR), from which the United Nations Human Rights Committee<\/span>clarified<\/span><\/a> in 1993 that the right to conscientious objection could be derived under Article 18, \u2018inasmuch as the obligation to use lethal force may seriously conflict with the freedom of conscience and the right to manifest one’s religion or belief\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Director of Advocacy and Americas Team Leader Anna Lee Stangl said: \u2018CSW calls on the Cuban authorities to cease their harassment of David Rosabal Cabrera and his family, and to respect his right to conscientious objection. We also urge Cuba to fully ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international treaties that it has signed, and to bring its constitution and legal framework into line with international law.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officials in Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba, are attempting to force the adult son of the pastors of an unregistered church to complete military service.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44209,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[140,137],"class_list":["post-30073","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-cuba","regions-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40659,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/30073\/revisions\/40659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30073"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=30073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}