Other
Documents
Signatories
Contacts and Support
Home
PROPOSED HUMANITARIAN AGENDA FOR THE
CUBAN FAMILY
ppdf
version
PREAMBLE
Consenso Cubano considers it necessary to make a call to move for
measures which directly benefit the people and the Cuban families,
while we shape a non-violent, sovereign and definitive shift towards
democracy in Cuba.
PROPOSALS
Consenso Cubano, based on it’s founding pillars, has identified
three areas of rights and liberties which it considers essential to
benefit the Cuban family and we propose adoption of the following
measures:
1) The right to free movement, residence and family
reunification.
• Abolition of the requirements which the Cuban government imposes
on its citizens when entering and leaving the country and repeal of
the migratory category “salida definitiva”.
• Abolition by the Cuban government of the regulations and laws that
prevent Cubans from freely establishing their residency, temporarily
or permanently, in Cuba and abroad.
• Elimination of foreign currency as permissible payment during the
required process to exit Cuba and revision of the taxes and tariffs
to put them in accordance with regional standards.
• Discontinuation of the Cuban government’s confiscation of goods,
interference with employment and other harassing measures against
emigrants.
• Prioritize and ease migration in cases of family reunification.
• Elimination of the measures enacted by the United States
government that hinder and limit trips to Cuba for humanitarian or
family reasons.
2) The right to accessible, free communication and at
market prices.
• Modification by the Cuban governments of the long distance
telephone fees to put them in accordance with regional standards.
• Liberalize and facilitate Cuban citizens’ access to the Internet
and electronic mail for fees which correspond with regional
standards.
• The abolition of all the measures which restrict access by the
Cuban population to acquiring computers and communications
equipment.
• Normalization of regular air mail between Cuba and the United
States.
3) The right to send and receive help from one’s family and other
individuals.
• Abolition by Cuba of the excessive taxes and restrictions of the
deliveries and aid packages received from abroad, using the
prevalent market costs in the region as an indicator.
• Elimination of United States’ restrictive measures regarding the
sending of deliveries and packages to Cuba for humanitarian reasons.
• Allow Cubans in the Island the use of the packages and help from
family to establish small business and self-employment
opportunities.
RATIONALE
As it happens for anyone who for one reason or another decides to
move, temporarily or permanently, to another country, those Cubans
living abroad have family members with who they want to maintain
fluid communication, whom they want to help or visit or with whom
they want to reunite, in Cuba or abroad. These are human aspirations
which should not be affected by political considerations.
The principal reasons we identify and prioritize for these three
rights are the following:
1. The process of the Cuban Revolution divided our families,
not only politically and ideologically, but also geographically.
More than 1 million Cubans today live dispersed throughout the
world.
The imposition by the Cuban government of permits for entry and exit
of the country by nationals, the confiscation of possessions, loss
of employment, public stigma, and police harassment against any
Cuban who expresses the desire live in another country, not to
mention the privation of the right to return, invest or even visit
their country after leaving, are exceptional measures in today’s
world.
Equally reproachable is the involuntary retention of family members
in Cuba as a penalty imposed on those who decide not to return to
the country.
The United States government has also imposed restrictions which
limit the ability of Cuban nationals living the U.S. to freely visit
their friends and loved ones.
Since the majority of the Cuban Diaspora lives in the U.S., these
measures have a negative impact on national reconciliation and
family reunification.
The rights of free movement, residence and family reunification are
supported by various documents of the international rights movement.
The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
affirms in Article 13 that “everyone has the right to freedom of
movement and residence within the borders of each state” and that
“everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and
to return to his country”. After the UDHR, other international pacts
and agreement, as well as resolutions, both by the UN General
Assembly and the UN’s Commission on Human Rights, have complemented
these rights, exhorting as well that “all states guarantee the
universally recognized right to travel, to all citizens of other
countries who reside legally in their territory” and “to facilitate
family reunification in an expeditious and efficient manner, taking
into careful consideration the applicable legislation, as this
reunification has a positive effect.”
2. All emigrants need to be able to communicate freely and
fluidly with those family members and loved ones they left behind.
It is an inalienable right to communication and it is an emotional
and psychological need of the first order. For Cubans it has become
extremely difficult to exercise this right, owing to the limitation
of access and the fees imposed which are excessive by regional
standards.
The use of and access to the internet, particularly e-mail, are
intensely regulated, restricted and controlled by the Cuban
authorities. Additionally, the cost of these services for those with
access, exceeds the standard regional price.
3. Emigrants from any country feel an ethical and emotional
obligation to help the family and loved ones they left behind.
Almost without exception, they regularly send deliveries and
packages to their families and friends and they increase these
shipments in response to disasters of various kinds. However, Cubans
confront divers obstacles in the exercise of this right.
Both governments have imposed restrictive measures which limit the
flow of deliveries and packages expressing human solidarity, from
family to family, person to person. For its part, the Cuban
government has adjusted the exchange rate of its money, deliberately
devaluing the deliveries and combining this action with a state tax
on the U.S. dollar.
All these measures, by both governments, limit the right of the
Cuban to have “a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing,
housing…”, in accordance with Article 25 of the UDHR. Additionally,
the Cuban government has launched an offensive and harassing
prosecution against the emerging sector of self-employed workers,
making it difficult, when not impossible, that packages by invested
in small businesses thereby permitting the family members
self-sufficiency without depending on the exterior, creating sources
of income for other Cubans and providing diverse services and
products to Cuban society.
This right is supported by different international rights norms and
documents just as they were expressed in conventions and resolutions
by the United Nations, where they urge all states to allow, among
other things, “the movement, without restriction of the family
packages which the citizens of other countries who reside in their
territory send to their family members in their country of origin.
CONCLUSION
The measures imposed which limit and deny to Cubans the fundamental
rights to travel freely in and out of Cuba for humanitarian or
family reunification purposes, to have access to fluid conversation,
and to be able to freely send and receive personal and family help,
violate Cubans’ fundamental rights, damage the Cuban family and
constitute ethical contradictions with great transcendence. It is
for this reason that Consenso Cubano proposes the elimination of the
barriers which impede, limit or prejudice the free exercise of these
rights and which complicated and delay the possibility of change for
Cuba.
For all the reasons expounded in this document, Consenso Cubano
urges collaboration with this humanitarian agenda and asks that all
Cubans, governments, organizations, institutions, houses of worship,
and people of good will accompany us in this constructive effort.
*****************
Miami, October 2006
ppdf
version