STATEMENT BY JUAN ANTONIO QUINTANILLA ROMÁN, AMBASSADOR, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF CUBA IN GENEVA, ON BEHALF OF THE HEAD OF THE DELEGATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AMBASSADOR RODOLFO BENÍTEZ VERSON, AT THE SUBMISSION OF CUBA'S REPORT UNDER THE CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT. Geneva, 21 April 2022.
Mr. President,
Distinguished members of the Committee,
I have the honor to present, on behalf of my government, the Report submitted by Cuba under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The document we submit for the Committee's consideration is the result of a broad and participatory consultation process, which involved numerous governmental institutions, the Parliament, non-governmental organizations and other Cuban institutions that, as a whole, carried out an objective assessment of the implementation of and compliance with the Convention in our country.
In Cuba, until 1959, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment were common practice by the authorities, which reached its climax during the bloody dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The Cuban Revolution, with its profound humanist and ethical content, put an end to this State policy.
On 17 May 1995, Cuba became a State Party to the Convention, and has complied with its provisions and contractual obligations throughout the national territory.
I must point out that the Cuban State is not responsible nor can it exercise its jurisdiction in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Cuba illegally occupied by the United States at the Guantánamo Naval Base which, as has been repeatedly denounced, is an international torture center.
Mr. President,
The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the submission of Cuba's report, which was delivered to the Committee in 2018.
Significant changes have occurred in our country's legal system since its submission four years ago. Several of them are closely related to the mandate of this Committee.
First, after a broad process of popular consultation, with a participation of 8 945 521 people, and the holding of a popular referendum in which 90.15% of the updated list of voters (7 848 343) participated, in 2019 the new Constitution of the Republic of Cuba was ratified, with the support of 86.85% of the voters who voted (6 816 169 people).
The new Magna Carta adequately reflects the commitments undertaken by Cuba as a State Party to international human rights instruments, such as the Convention against Torture.
In its Article 51, the new Constitution establishes that "People cannot be subjected to forced disappearance, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".
The Cuban government accorded constitutional status to a precept which, although intrinsic to the functioning of our political, legal and social system, was not explicitly reflected in the previous constitutional text.
In order to guarantee full and strict compliance with the new Constitution and the wide range of guarantees contained therein, Cuba has embarked on a comprehensive reform of its substantive and adjective legal norms.
In a few weeks, a new Penal Code and new procedural laws will be adopted, and the draft of the Family Code is under popular consultation.
Other legal norms have also been adopted, or are in the process of being adopted. This will ensure that no rights are left without legal guarantees for their effective realization, including those related to the Convention against Torture.
The new Penal Code is consistent with the international obligations assumed by Cuba and the recommendations emanating from the two previous reviews of our country before this Committee.
As an illustration of this, in our new Constitution and new Penal Code the crime of Torture is explicitly classified and defined on the basis of all the elements contained in Article 1 of the Convention.
Moreover, within the Code, this crime is punished with appropriate penalties that take into account its serious nature, in accordance with the provisions of article 4, paragraph 2, of the Convention.
Likewise, the new Penal Execution Law is expected to be adopted this year. This law will take into account the international treaties to which Cuba is a State Party, including the Convention against Torture, and is aimed at regulating the enforcement of principal and accessory sanctions imposed on natural and legal persons.
We also have the new Criminal Procedure Law, which strengthens the guarantees of the accusatory system, the rights of the victims and takes due account of the universally recognized principles in this matter.
This new legal norm guarantees, as established in Article 95 of the Constitution, the right to defense of every defendant and to have legal assistance from the beginning of the process, when the person is arraigned.
This occurs within 24 hours in case of being detained, and within five days after the accusation, when the person is at liberty.
Another important advance of the new Cuban criminal procedure model is the possibility of the defendant to request before the Court the assessment of the preventive measure of remand in custody imposed by the prosecutor.
Likewise, the implementation of the National Program for the Advancement of Women, the Comprehensive Strategy for the Prevention and Attention to Gender Violence and Violence in the Family Scenario, and the approval of the new Family Code, will be part of the new legal framework to combat gender-based violence and other forms of domestic violence.
These and other laws passed in the last four years show the unquestionable will of the Cuban State and government to guarantee the rights of all its citizens, to comply with the provisions of the Convention against Torture and to implement the recommendations of this Committee.
The Cuban legal system guarantees the necessary legal remedies so that people can demand before our courts the vindication of their rights, when they consider that these have been violated.
The challenge is to achieve high levels of awareness and training of the justice system officials in Cuba, so that they can guarantee its proper implementation, in order to safeguard prompt and effective justice.
Likewise, we will continue to advance in the implementation of actions aimed at increasing the legal culture of the population, so that these laws can be understood by all our people and make more effective compliance, by all, under the provisions of the Convention against Torture.
Mr. President,
In Cuba there is not and will not be room for impunity, nor laws or regulations that protect it.
The legislation in force, including those norms recently approved and the one that governs actions in places of detention contains the universally accepted fundamental guarantees to protect all persons against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The State takes the necessary measures to prevent the execution of the acts proscribed in the Convention against Torture and, should they occur, to punish them severely.
In Cuba, human dignity is the supreme value underpinning the recognition and exercise of rights.
In spite of the important advances and achievements made, we are not satisfied.
Even though a great effort has been made to improve prison facilities, we are facing difficulties and material limitations for the constructive maintenance of some of them.
This situation affects the living conditions in some of the centers, although very distant from the situations of concern at penitentiary facilities in many other countries.
This is due to the serious obstacles and shortages imposed on all the Cuban people by the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US government against Cuba.
Despite of this, the prisoners, who do not have any health problem that prevent them to get the vaccine against COVID19, have been vaccinated. Most of them have completed the vaccination schedule as part of the strategy to fight the pandemic, and the administration of the booster shot to preserve their health has begun.
Likewise, and despite of being a challenging area for any developing country, we are aware that we must increase the capacity to obtain specialized statistical data, which still do not meet the high level of detail requested by this Committee.
The implementation of the new legal norms adopted in Cuba during this period will bring about a better quality in the collection of data and statistics, which until now were scattered or not compiled as required.
This will be the case, for example, of disaggregated statistics on cases of gender violence prosecuted, which was one of the recommendations of this Committee in 2012.
Mr. President,
Regrettably, Cuba once again comes before this Committee under special circumstances, different from those of other States Parties.
Using in an opportunistic way the pandemic and its effects as allies, the US government has been imposing a policy of maximum pressure for several years now, seeking to strangle the Cuban economy; it is stepping up unilateral coercive measures, imposing new sanctions and reinforcing the destabilization and subversion programs against our country.
The cruelty of the blockade has reached unprecedented levels. The United States has not only hindered donations to Cuba to face the pandemic, but has also tried to hinder the development of our vaccines against COVID19 and access to medicines and basic supplies to treat our population.
This has been maliciously complemented by a fierce campaign of political interference in the internal affairs of our country, using subversion programs to which the U.S. government allocates tens of millions of dollars each year from the federal budget and additional sums of covert funds.
The purpose is to bring about political and social instability in the context of the economic difficulties caused by U.S. government.
They employ substantial resources, social laboratories, high-tech tools, in an unbridled campaign aimed at discrediting Cuba, by the shameless use of lies and manipulation of data.
They seek to bring social chaos, disorder, violence and death. They manipulate facts based on lies and encourage the use of hybrid technologies of unconventional warfare to promote political destabilization and so-called "regime change".
A fierce political and media campaign has been unleashed, including attempts to manipulate the UN human rights machinery to serve spurious interests.
As part of this plan designed and financed by the U.S., the United Nations human rights bodies, including this Committee against Torture, are inundated with multiple allegations full of lies and misrepresentation of the facts, with the aim of imposing a negative opinion regarding Cuba.
It is our duty to alert the Committee to these actions, which are aimed at hindering an objective, impartial and unprejudiced assessment of the Cuban reality.
In accordance with its permanent willingness to cooperate with the United Nations human rights machinery, Cuba has responded to the communications it has received from them.
However, the absence of prior scrutiny of sources and the credibility of allegations undermines the seriousness and objectivity of the dialogue. We are forced, on too many occasions, to respond to allegations that lack a minimum of credibility and seriousness.
Mr. President, distinguished members of the Committee,
During this exercise, you will be able to note the efforts of the Cuban government in implementing the recommendations made by the Committee in 2012.
I thank you for the opportunity to hold this respectful dialogue, which we hope will help us to continue improving our society and its work of justice.
We will not waiver in our efforts to guarantee the full enjoyment of all human rights for all.
Thank you very much.