More than half of the Cuban population has participated in the popular consultation on the new Family Codea proposal for legislative reform that includes issues such as the legalization of same-sex marriage and surrogacy, according to a dispatch from the Spanish agency Eph.
Quoting the official newspaper Granmathe agency underlines that the scrutiny of the legislative package proposed by the Cuban government, a process that began in February and ends this Saturday, included 397,000 proposals.
Of this total of proposals, collected in more than 79,000 meetings held throughout the country, 61% were “favourable”.
The legislative text and the proposals of these community meetings will be sent in May to the National Assembly of People’s Power for eventual approval. Then, it is expected that the approved Family Code will be submitted to a referendum in the second half of this year, although specific dates have not yet been announced.
The Cuban government has deployed an important media campaign in favor of its proposal, with press brochures and even special programs dedicated to explaining every detail of the 471 articles of the regulation, seeking majority support according to the Spanish agency.
Some members of the LGBTI community have criticized that this regulation should pass a referendum and that none of the remaining 70 new laws of the current legislative period, some as relevant as the new Penal Code, should not undergo the same process.
Among opponents and dissidents, the debate persists between those who consider that the legislation represents progress -although they reject the Cuban government and are not totally in agreement with the text- and those who oppose it on principle, because they reject any proposal from the authorities.
The project under discussion, which also addresses gender violence and completely prohibits child marriage, aims to modernize the regulations on affective, sexual and family relationships in the country, since the current one is from 1975.
If finally approved, it underlines Ephthe Family Code would be a turning point for a country and a government with a past marked by homophobia.
Efe/OnCuba.
