Cuba Denies the Work of Informal Civil Society in Defending Human Rights

Cuba Denies the Work of Informal Civil Society in Defending Human Rights
/ Cubalex

Cubalex, 3 April 2017 — The defense and promotion of human rights in the
world depens on the work done on the ground by civil society
organzations, documenting human rights violations.

It does not matter whether the internal context of a country is more or
less repressive, or whether the regime is more or less democratic. Civil
society is the one that monitors the universal and effective
applications and implementation of human rights.

These organizations are the mediators between individuals and the State
and an essential pillar for the strengthening and consolidation of
democracies and the rule of law. Without civil society, there is no
legitimate state.

Lamentably its members often are exposed to dangers. Many times they are
tortured and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, including
murder. They are vulnerable worldwide, due to undue restrictions on
freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association.

Of the 43 thematic mandates of the special procedures of the United
Nations, the rapporteurs who deal with the exercise of these rights are
those who send the most communications to the States. Cuba is no
exception. These rapporteurs were the ones that sent the most
communications, either individually or jointly, between 2011 and 2016.

However, the Cuban State disagrees with the rapporteurs'
characterization of the people who make up the organizations that defend
human rights in Cuba. The State considers it inadmissible that they
should be recognized internationally as such and as a part of Cuban
civil society.

The State says that these human rights defenders aim to openly
transgress the laws, undermine, subvert and destroy the political and
social system, the internal legal and constitutional order, established
in a sovereign way by the Cuban nation, acting against the purposes and
principles enshrined in the International agreements on human rights.

It asserts that they are everything from invaders to terrorists, hiding
behind the mantle of human rights defenders. it states that they receive
funding from the United States government to fabricate excuses that
justify their policy of hostility, blockade and aggression against Cuba.

The government denies the work of defending human rights on the part of
informal civil society organizations, and discredits them, to increase
their vulnerability.

Source: Cuba Denies the Work of Informal Civil Society in Defending
Human Rights / Cubalex – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuba-denies-the-work-of-informal-civil-society-in-defending-human-rights-cubalex/