(EFE) May 26 in Havana.
In a letter addressed this Monday to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, the organizations asked him to “guarantee that the EU and Cuba give human rights a central role in their relations”, at a “crucial moment for the defenders of human rights in the country”.
They stressed that they continue to document “the continuous violation” by the Cuban authorities of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in the country, and that they continue to “suffocate dissident voices.”
On the occasion of the joint council that Borrell will co-chair with the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, the organizations urged Havana to release “immediately and unconditionally all those detained solely for exercising their human rights,” including their rights to liberty expression and peaceful assembly.
Also that Cuba end the “surveillance and arbitrary detentions” of defenders, activists and journalists, including “the use of house arrest against dissident voices”, and the “excessive use of force” in peaceful protests.
The organizations urged that Havana release “immediately and unconditionally all those detained solely for exercising their human rights.”
Likewise, they especially vindicated the rights of women, the Afro-descendant population and the LGBTIQ+ community.
And, in the same context, they urged “to take advantage” of the next summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) that will take place in July in Brussels to “intensify the commitment in terms of human rights with Cuba and with all of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Other signatory organizations of the letter are Civil Rights Defenders, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Front Line Defenders, People in Need, Race and Equality, the World Organization against Torture and the Observatory for the Protection of Defenders of Human rights.
The joint council is held within the framework of the EU-Cuba political dialogue and cooperation agreement, which was signed in December 2016 and has been in force since November 1, 2017.
This treaty marked the end of the so-called “common position” of the EU towards Cuba, the restrictive unilateral policy that the Union had maintained towards Havana since 1996, and that linked any progress in the bilateral relationship to progress in democratization and human rights in the island.
The pact promotes cooperation in favor of sustainable development, democracy and human rights, as well as the possibility of finding shared solutions to global challenges through joint actions in multilateral forums.
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