Madam President, distinguished members of the Committee,
I would like to thank you, on behalf of our delegation, for the opportunity to submit the III-VI Combined Report of Cuba, concerning the fulfillment of its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The report is the result of broad consultations and involved government institutions, the National Assembly of People's Power and civil society organizations, including boys, girls and adolescents, who thoroughly and critically assessed compliance with the Convention and its Protocols to date, enabling us to systematize progress and identify challenges in the protection of children and adolescents.
Madam President,
Since 2011, with greater emphasis in the last three years, an intense process of legislative updating and alignment has taken place in Cuba, with broad popular participation, including boys, girls and adolescents.
In 2018-2019, the consultations and the popular referendum on the draft Constitution of the Republic of Cuba were held, being adopted by 86.85% out of the 7 848,343 voters who voted, 90.15% of the voters list.
More than 100,000 consultations were carried out, 1,585 of which were by university students and 3,256 by high school students between the ages of 12 and 18. Our boys,girls and adolescents are subjects of rights and participate actively in all issues that concern them.
The Magna Carta accorded constitutional rank to the principle of the best interests of the child, which to date had been observed in the country's decision-making.
Robust, modern and the most advanced standards of their kind have been adopted. On 1 January 2022, four new laws came into force: the Law on Courts of Justice, the Criminal Procedure Law, the Administrative Procedure Law and the Procedural Code Law, which reinforce the guarantees and strengthen the protection of children and adolescents in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Other legal regulations that extend this protection such as the Penal Code, the Law of Penal Execution and the Law of Protection of Constitutional Rights have been submitted to the Cuban Parliament.
With the purpose of strengthening the protection of families in Cuba, we are presently engaged in the drafting of a new, more inclusive legislation, an advanced Code of Families, a Code of the Future, which increasingly resembles the country we want to build and which sometimes goes beyond international standards in terms of promotion and protection of rights.
A broad process of specialized consultations took place, to which the UNICEF Office in Havana, among others, contributed. The significant progresses of the legislation related to the protection of children in the country, its consistency with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and with the recommendations made by this Committee were recognized.
This process, which included a wide popular consultation, will be completed with a referendum, in which our people, in a genuine exercise of participatory democracy, will decide on the adoption of the draft of the Code of Families.
Madam President,
According to the population projections of the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI, by its Spanish initials), in 2020 there were approximately 2.3 million people under 18 years old, accounting for the 21% of the total population.
Aware of the importance of protecting their rights, the establishment of an independent, effective and high-level national mechanism is under analysis and discussion.
While this process is underway, a Deputy Prime Minister of the Government has been appointed for all activities, actions and policies related to the protection of the rights of boys, girls and adolescents.
The lessons learned during the implementation of the National Action Plan for Children, Adolescents and their Families (PANIAF, by its Spanish initials) show the urgency of strengthening the assessment, follow-up and monitoring of actions aimed at protecting children and adolescents. We are committed to achieving this important objective.
We are also working on a comprehensive policy of providing care to children and youth that comprises ten strategic lines, in order to foster their comprehensive development, taking into account their particular features and individual interests.
As a culmination of this process, the corresponding legal norm must be drawn up.
We are aware that the availability of statistical data does not yet meet the high level of detail required by the Committee. In this regard, Decree-Law No. 6 of 2020 on the Government Information System has been adopted, which makes it possible to move forward in obtaining disaggregated statistics for decision-making and the design of public policies for the benefit of our children and adolescents.
Madam President,
In Cuba, the State budget is outstandingly earmarked to meet the social needs of the population, with primary emphasis on boys, girls and adolescents. In 2022, 69% has been allocated to basic programs and services to the population, particularly public health, education and social assistance and security, sectors with a very high impact on the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents in the country.
The National Health System is free and offers universal coverage, without discrimination of any kind.
Even at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging in the world, our country ensured the immunization schedule for boys and girls against 13 diseases through the application of 11 vaccines, 8 of which were produced nationally. Fourteen communicable diseases have been eliminated and 9 others do not constitute health problems, with rates lower than 0.1% per 100,000 inhabitants.
We can proudly state that Cuba is the first country in the world to conduct a massive immunization campaign against COVID-19 in the pediatric population to be vaccinated as of the age of 2, with its own vaccines of proven efficacy, certified by the national regulatory authority for emergency use.
By the end of 2021, our boys, girls, adolescents and young adults safely returned to their classrooms.
We were able to maintain the education system at all levels, inclusive and equitable, keeping the standards of quality, with the capacities already built in the country and the critical participation of the family and the community.
We have also participated in the protection of boys, girls and adolescents around the world. During the pandemic, 58 medical brigades from the "Henry Reeve" International Contingent have been present in 42 countries and territories providing their solidarity contribution, including the care of boys, girls and adolescents.
Madam President,
In Cuba, the system for the specialized care of children and adolescents with disabilities promotes their comprehensive development for their full inclusion in general education, in the shortest possible time. The number of learners in these regular settings increases every school year.
In 2019, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities welcomed the measures we have taken for the benefit of all persons with disabilities, including children and adolescents.
Our approach will continue to be that differences in physical, intellectual and sensory development cannot be barriers that prevent our children from living independently and participating fully in all areas of society.
In 2020, Cuba was recognized by UNESCO in the Global Monitoring Report on Education, for inclusive quality education and for the Educate Your Child Program.
In 2019, the WHO ratified that the Cuban government has maintained for four consecutive years, the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis, which made Cuba, since 2015, the first country in the world to achieve this goal.
In the area of sexual and reproductive health, the country has a Comprehensive Sexuality Education Policy, which is complemented by the National Strategic Plan for the period 2020 - 2023, and which includes actions for prevention, care and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, HIV and hepatitis.
We will continue making efforts so that adolescents have the necessary means to enjoy a full and responsible sexuality.
Madam President,
In compliance with the recommendations of this Committee, Cuba is moving forward in the adoption of various legal norms for a more comprehensive and effective regulation of all rights for all persons, including boys, girls and adolescents. In this regard, the Cuban government's will is directed towards:
- A broader regulation of the types of filiation, including consanguineous filiation, adoptive filiation, filiation resulting from assisted reproduction techniques and judicially recognized socio-affective filiation;
- The recognition of autonomy and their progressive capacity to exercise, by themselves, legal acts on their inherent rights;
- Replacement of the institution of parental authority by the notion of parental responsibility;
- The realignment of policies for alternative care modalities, reinforcing the premise that the child remains in the care of his or her own family, is reintegrated into it or, failing that, another appropriate and permanent solution is found where institutionalization is an exceptional and temporary measure;
- The inclusion of the family ombudsman's office for children and adolescents;
- The requirement of specialization of authorities and officials dealing with family matters;
- The explicit recognition of violence against children and adolescents and the urgent judicial protection, with inalienable action, and with reparation for damages;
- The express prohibition of inappropriate forms of discipline, including the use of corporal punishment in any form.
Madam President,
In Cuba, child labor is outlawed by law. Measures have been adopted that, with ample effectiveness, have prevented our children from becoming victims of abhorrent practices such as sexual tourism, human trafficking, servitude, illegal trafficking of migrants, the sale of their organs or illegal adoptions.
We apply a Zero Tolerance policy to all manifestations against the comprehensive development of minors, their freedom and sexual integrity.
Article 86 of the Constitution of the Republic explicitly incorporates their protection against all types of violence, including domestic violence.
In March 2021, the National Program for the Advancement of Women was adopted by Presidential Decree 198/2021, and subsequently, on 9 November 2021, the Council of Ministers adopted the Comprehensive Strategy for the Prevention and Attention to Gender Violence and Violence in the Family Scenario, for the period 2021-2030, with concrete actions aimed at achieving greater comprehensiveness and effectiveness in the prevention and elimination of manifestations of discrimination against women and girls, including violence in all its manifestations.
We continue to work on raising society's awareness of these issues, with a greater emphasis towards teachers, mothers and fathers, girls, boys and adolescents.
Madam President,
The Cuban State has comprehensive protection policies for children and adolescents for differentiated, decriminalized, educational and socially restorative treatment for minors under 16 years of age who commit acts defined by law as crimes. The measures adopted are aimed at responding to the observations we have received from the Committee.
In strict compliance with General Comment No. 24, Cuba has set a single minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is appropriate, higher than the world average and with a commitment not to drop it it under any circumstances.
The administration of justice for young people between 16 and 18 years of age is carried out in full compliance with articles 37 and 40.3 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In line with the Committee's recommendation to address children aged 16 to 18 as juvenile offenders and not as adults, there has been an increase in the adoption of alternative measures in judicial proceedings, the application of non-custodial measures or the application as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and the consequent guidance towards effective social reintegration programs.
Our criminal legislation goes even further and establishes, as a general norm, the application of the juvenile justice system to persons up to 20 years of age, with all the guarantees provided by law.
We have made progress in complying with almost all the recommendations made by this Committee, including those derived from the dialogue we held in 2015, in spite of the unprecedented and opportunistic tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US government against our country for more than 60 years.
This cruel and illegal policy is not based solidarity, humanism, social justice; it does not discriminate in its comprehensive application. There is not a single Cuban child or adolescent who escapes its effects.
This is not a mere public discourse. The application of this criminal policy strikes at the very heart of our people, of our nation. When an infant, despite the enormous effort of the State, cannot receive a medicine or undergo a medical procedure due to lack of inputs, technology or specific equipment that would contribute to improve his or her quality of life or guarantee life itself, the purest, the most innocent of mankind is suffering.This is what the US government has been subjecting Cuban children and adolescents to for more than 60 years. A policy rejected by the international community, obsolete and failed which intends to bring to its knees an entire people on the basis of hunger and need, for the sole crime of having chosen a free and independent path.
Likewise, a fierce political and media campaign has been unleashed to discredit the country's real and effective protection of children and adolescents and to manipulate, in a malicious manner, the United Nations human rights machinery to serve spurious interests.
Madam President,
We come to this review in a constructive spirit and looking forward to having a frank and respectful dialogue with the members of the Committee. I convey to you, Madam President, our full willingness to provide the information and clarifications required and thus continue to cooperate, as Cuba has historically done, in its relations with all treaty bodies.
We will continue to work with the active participation of civil society organizations, including those of children and young people, to preserve and strengthen the outcomes achieved and to continue advancing in the promotion and effective protection of children's rights. We will not waiver in the purpose of guaranteeing an increasingly full and happy life for our children and adolescents, under the Marti's premise that "we work for the children, because children are the ones who know how to love, because children are the hope of the world".
Thank you very much.