Paris, 10 October 2024. The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Enslaved Persons' Route Programme provided a propitious setting for the exchange between the Cuban Deputy Minister of Culture, Lillitsy Hernández Oliva, and the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences Sector, Ms. Gabriela Ramos, to which was also attended by the Cuban Ambassador to UNESCO María del Carmen Herrera Caseiro.
The Cuban Deputy Minister thanked her counterpart for the invitation to this important celebration and commented on the activities carried out in Cuba to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Enslaved Persons' Route, in particular the event organized in collaboration with UNESCO in Havana, in which officials from the headquarters participated, as well as prominent figures such as the Nobel Prize for Literature Wole Soyinka. She also referred to the Cuban government's commitment to developing policies to combat racism and racial discrimination, mentioning the National Plan adopted and implemented in Cuba, in which the Ministry of Culture plays a leading and coordinating role.
For her part, the senior official of the Organization highlighted Cuba's central role in the issue, emphasizing the importance of registering new memorial sites. In this regard, she mentioned the presentation of the file of the San Severino Castle as a new site linked to the Route of Enslaved People. She reaffirmed the need not only for the recognition of the places, but also for their interconnection with sites on other continents.
She referred to the celebration of the World Forum against Racism, to be held in Barcelona in December, and suggested establishing a virtual connection with the International Conference on Afro-descendants that would be taking place in Cuba on the same dates.
She expressed her interest in participating in the Conference “For the Balance of the World” in Havana, during which the UNESCO José Martí Prize would be awarded, and advocated for promoting nominations of women for the award.