Madrid/The National Organization of Collective Law Firms (ONBC), a state institution of lawyers that depends on the Ministry of Justice, has opened in Havana the first office specialized in serving victims of gender violence. It does so with the help of the Canadian Embassy and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), according to the report published by the Cuban News Agency (ACN), and the project plans to expand to another 40 municipalities on the Island.
The inauguration of the premises, located in Old Havana, coincided, on Tuesday, with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the anniversary of the death of Fidel Castro, hence at the same event they had words for the dictator, remembered “as a tireless fighter for the emancipation of women.”
Without referring at any time to the femicides that occurred on the Island, which, due to the lack of official data, have to be compiled by independent organizations and media – they go 37 so far this yearaccording to the record of 14ymedio–, Teresa Amarelle Boué, general secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), recognized that the initiative “materializes a historic claim by women, many of whom lack the financial resources to hire a lawyer.”
The objective of this office is “for victims to see the offices as a hope, a light and a legal instrument to defend their rights.”
On behalf of one of the entities that finance the initiative, Marianne Zemble, Canadian ambassador to Cuba, declared that the project “has the possibility of changing lives and, therefore, society as a whole,” and highlighted “the more than 50 years of cooperation with the Island and the commitment of her country in the global fight against gender violence.” The head of the Unfpa, Marisol Alfonso de Armas, celebrated the creation of a “real, physical and tangible space, which constitutes the best delivery for women who suffer violence.”
The president of ONBC, Lilia María Hernández Doejó, told the state agency that the objective of this office is “for victims to see the offices as hope, a light and a legal instrument to defend their rights.”
The main functions of the instance will be “specialized, empathetic and sensitive legal advice, as well as methodological and guidance work for the improvement of lawyers throughout the country.” The office, indicated Mónica Martínez de Varona, national coordinator of the Organization’s service, will supervise the attention provided by “specialized lawyers in the law firms of the selected municipalities,” who “will receive continuous training.”
The Attorney General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Supreme Court and other institutions had announced, in the middle of this year, the creation of a computerized administrative registry to collect data on femicides, but shortly after they confirmed that it would not be public.
Last year, authorities held 76 trials for sexist crimes, but it is unknown on what dates the murders occurred. In the trials held in 2023, 110 victims were registered.
With that rate, Cuba would be located within of the three countries with the highest rates of femicides of Latin America, only surpassed by Honduras and the Dominican Republic, if the data from the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) corresponding to 2023, the last year available, is taken into account.
Just this Wednesday, Amnesty International (AI) denounced that gender violence is an instrument used by the same regime to repress activists, journalists and human rights defenders.
The testimonies collected in the report They want us to be silent, but we continue to resist: authoritarian practices and state violence against women in Cubasigned by Johana Cilano Peláez, AI regional researcher for the Caribbean, show that the Cuban State “uses the maternal role to try to get women to abandon activism.”
