A look back at addressing the UN Human Rights Council

The adoption of the Universal Periodic Review outcome on Cuba by the members of the UN Human Rights Council today presents an opportunity to focus on human rights challenges in Cuba, and some of the actions taken by activists over the years. There are currently over 1,000 political prisoners in Cuba, and at least another 38 were detained following nonviolent protests on March 17, 2024.

The situation in Cuba has worsened, but the repression is familiar.

The last time I addressed the UN Human Rights Council was in 2018 during the same session Sirley Ávila León spoke about the machete attack she suffered in Cuba in 2015, and the cycle of repression by the political police that led to that act of extreme violence.

My first foray into the international human rights body was in 2003 when it was called the UN Human Rights Commission. It was a baptism by fire in the immediate aftermath of nationwide crackdown on Cuban human rights defenders, independent journalists, and Project Varela petitioners by the communist dictatorship in Cuba. On two occasions during that session addressed what was taking place. This is a summary of second statement.

... "More than 100 human rights activists had suffered searches, arrests and expedited trials in Cuba.  Many had already been condemned to sentences of up to 26 years in prison for defending civil and political rights in the country.  On 7 April 2003, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was tried without due process and today was facing up to 25 years in prison for defending human rights in Cuba.  In Cuban prisons, political prisoners were denied medical assistance as a form of punishment for upholding their ideas.  Highly dangerous criminals were used by State Security to attack imprisoned activities, as was the case of Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, a young activist whose jaw was broken in three parts, and who was severely beaten on three more occasions before being taken to the hospital."

Seven years earlier in 1996, Sebastian Arcos Bergnes, one of the deans of the Cuban human rights movement, addressed the UN Human Rights Commission shortly after his release from a Cuban prison. This is a short excerpt of that statement.

My name is Sebastian Arcos Bergnes, and I am the Vice-president of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization founded in Cuba in 1976 to observe the respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the island.

On the 15 of January 1992 I was arrested in my home by the Cuban political police; the second time in ten years. On October of that year I was sentenced to 4 years and eight months in prison for the sole crime of reporting to this Commission the violations of human rights committed by the government of my country. The labor of those volunteers of this Commission inside of Cuba are considered by the government as "enemy propaganda."

I will not enter into the details concerning the multiple irregularities of the judicial process always against me, nor about the conditions that I had to tolerate for more than three years. I will refer solely to one aspect of this my last experience in Cuban prisons.

When I was arrested in January of 1992, I enjoyed excellent general health for a man my age, 60 years then. I weighed around 170 pounds, and ran 5 to 6 kilometers every morning. Eight months later, when after a campaign of denunciations of my family I was transferred finally to a military hospital, I'd lost over 30 pounds and suffered from multiple ailments. 

He passed away on December 22, 1997 due to the lack of medical treatment, and poor prison conditions he endured in Cuba.

During my second visit in 2004 to the UN Human Rights Commission loaded down with posters, fliers, and reports entering and exiting was not a problem until a Falun Gong member handed me a flier for a parallel event they were holding in the same building in a room facing the session. A short time later I tried to go through the security screening to enter the UN Human Rights Commission session and was told I could not enter with the Falun Gong event flier. I had pounds of paper and posters criticizing a number of governments including the dictatorship in Cuba - those were "OK" but not the Falun Gong flier. I asked for the guards supervisor who repeated to tell me to choose: either leave the flier and enter or hang on to it and stay out.

The following day at the Falun Gong meeting in a room filled with human rights activists around the world to listen to the atrocities committed against this Chinese minority I learned that many others had experienced the same outrage but had remained silent not wanting to rock the boat. This led me to ask - isn't your job as a human rights activist precisely to challenge injustice?

Cuban dissidents who resisted the communist dictatorship in Cuba, and suffered greatly have traveled to Geneva over the years to denounce the crimes committed against them, and the Cuban populace more broadly. There are many more, but these are a few sampled to reflect the many.

Blanca Gonzalez, a Lady in White, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 2005 on the plight of her son Normando Hernandez.

Former prisoner of conscience Omar Pernet Hernández, with his niece, Bertha Antúnez testified in a side event at the UN Human Rights Council in 2009.

Speaking truth to power: Cuban dissident and machete attack victim Sirley Avila Leon addresses the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained." - Mohandas Gandhi, Young India 1924-1926 (1927), p. 1285

Sirley Avila Leon in Geneva, Switzerland at the statue of Mohandas Gandhi.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has failed to hold the Castro regime accountable, and too often has legitimized the 59 year old dictatorship and its henchman. Lamentably, the Universal Periodic review has also been rendered impotent by the machinations of the despots in Havana, and the indifference of too many democracies around the world. Cubans are being beaten up, mutilated, and murdered by agents of the Cuban government for trying to exercise their human rights and the chief human rights body in the world says nothing about it.

Nevertheless, over the course of this past year Cuban pro-democracy activists journeyed or tried to journey to the UN Human Rights Council to speak truth to power. (Cuban democrats did the same in 2009 and again in 2013 during the first two cycles of the Universal Periodic Review of Cuba). They all spoke truth to power, and their testimony exposes the lies propagated by the Castro dictatorship.

Cuba told lies yesterday at the United Nations to its fellow Human Rights Council members. But something went wrong for them when UN Watch gave the floor to dissident Sirley Avila Leon who testified how regime agents brutally attacked her with a machete. Thank you, @johnjsuarez. pic.twitter.com/ky7bRFq03j

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 25, 2018

Earlier this week, on September 24, 2018 during Item 6 of the UN Human Rights Council on the general debate over the Universal Periodic Review, one of the victims of repression was able to address the Human Rights Council. Sirley Avila Leon addressed the Council about the May 24, 2015 machete attack orchestrated by Castro regime agents in Cuba. Below is a translation of the original Spanish statement to English:

Item 6: Universal Periodic Review 

39th regular session of the Human Rights Council

Thank you, Mr. President,

My name is Sirley Avila Leon, I am Cuban and I will speak on behalf of UN Watch.

On May 24, 2015 living in Cuba I suffered an attack orchestrated by agents of the state, I was attacked with a machete to kill me cutting off my left hand and right shoulder while I covered my head with them, then cut my knees leaving me disabled for life.

This was not the first attack I suffered, I was previously attacked several times, physically and verbally by the political police in Cuba: they burned my bed, I suffered arbitrary arrests, death threats, economic damages. Only for demanding better living conditions for the peasants and their children in a rural area of Las Tunas.

My case is not isolated. In Cuba, the state continues to violate the human rights of Cubans, murders, imprisons and banishes those who demand rights and repress their families.

 To save my life, in 2016 I escaped from Cuba, since then my son, Yoerlis Peña Avila, has been threatened with death and repressed on several occasions. At this moment I fear for his life.

Mr. President, as a direct victim of repression in Cuba, I ask: How can the Cuban government be a member of the Human Rights Council, committing so many crimes against humanity for 59 years?

Thank you very much.

Later that same day I also spoke before the UN Human Rights Council touching on pressing issues: the continuing unjust imprisonment of Eduardo Cardet; the August 9, 2018 extrajudicial killing of Alejandro Pupo Echemendia, and the threats, harassment and detention of witnesses, family members and rights defenders who spoke out; and finally addressed with great concern the plight of Tomás Núñez Magdariaga, a Cuban political prisoner on his 40th day on hunger strike this past Monday.

The life of Tomás Núñez Magdariaga continues to hang in the balance as he enters his 44th day on hunger strike on Friday.

From the Archives: Former Cuban Political Prisoner Denounces Human Rights Violations at UN Council

José Gabriel Ramón Castillo (age 61) passed away on July 16, 2018 from a cirrhosis of the liver product of a hepatitis infection contracted while imprisoned in Cuba as a prisoner of conscience during the 2003 Black Cuban Spring. In 2009, shortly after his release from prison he addressed the UN Human Rights Council. Below is the statement and press release published in 2009 by the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

Geneva. June 10, 2009. Cuban Democratic Directorate. Former Cuban political prisoner José Gabriel Ramón Castillo addressed the 11th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday June 10, in order to denounce human rights violations on the Island.

“In the name of those thousands of Cubans who have been repressed and tortured, and whose fundamental rights are violated, I ask the Council to do justice for the Cuban people,” concluded Ramón Castillo’s remarks before the Council.

The statement, referred to as an intervention, took place during the open debate on the human rights situation on the Island, after the presentation of the final report on the Universal Periodic Review process carried out at the beginning of February, 2009

“The interventions by Ramón Castillo as well as by the representative for Human Rights Watch were critical and persuasive, despite the allegations against them before the Council made by the Havana regime’s ambassador,” stated John Suárez, director of International Relations for the Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio) who is attending the session in Geneva.

The activists were able to participate in this international forum thanks to the support of the Centrist Democrat International. The representatives of the cause for human rights in Cuba also held a press conference previous to the presentation in the Council chamber.

“It has been a marvelous experience to participate in this international dialogue where, once again, the regime resorted to rhetoric and its claims were laid bare thanks to the remarks we made and those by Human Rights Watch. It makes no sense for the regime to speak of human rights if it has not adhered to the covenants on civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights,” stated former political prisoner José Gabriel Ramón Castillo by telephone to Directorio.

José Gabriel Ramón Castillo met President Havel in 2009

 Below is the full text of José Gabriel Ramón Castillo’s statement before the Council:

INTERVENTION AT THE 11th SESSION OF THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL,

June 2009.

Thank you, Mr. President:

My name is José Gabriel Ramón Castillo. I was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, and I testify before this forum as a victim of repression in Cuba. I will refer concretely to two points contained in the Responses provided by Cuba on the recommendations listed under paragraph 131 of the report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Cuba (A/HRC/11/22) Adopted during the Fourth Session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review.

The ratification of the International Covenants on Civil, Political, Social, Economic, and Cultural rights is still a pending matter. My question concerning this- Will it be possible to put a date on definitive adherence to these Covenants? As long as Cuba does not ratify these Covenants, the human rights situation will continue to depend on the political will of the Government, and there is no guarantee whatsoever that the current situation will change.

On page 2, the aforementioned document indicates that “Cuba is a State Party to the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishments (CAT) from May 17, 1995 assures respect for the physical and spiritual integrity of persons. In the country there are no existing practices of torture or of other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishments. Cuba has the effective national resources to ensure the rigorous application of the CAT.”

The reality is that in Cuba there are hundreds of political prisoners recognized by Amnesty International. Many are ill and do not receive treatment. Human rights defenders enter prison healthy and in a short time suffer serious illnesses as in the cases of, among others, Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, Librado Linares García, Normando Hernández González, and Ariel Sigler Amaya, who has been left an invalid. In Cuba, there is physical and psychological torture, and I am a direct victim of these practices.

On page 8, the aforementioned document speaks of the self-determination of peoples, and economic, social, and cultural rights are mentioned. Nevertheless, the self-determination of Cuban workers is not respected in Cuba. Workers lack the right to organizer labor unions independently of the state, and 5 Cubans are currently in prison for attempting to organize independent labor unions. This has been well documented by the relevant international institutions.

The Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs of Cuba has documented 21 deaths in prison in 2009 due to denial of medical attention and/or psychological harassment. There have been 500 cases of arbitrary arrests and 26 imprisonments of human rights activists. Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, executive director of the Council, as well as Julio Romero Muñoz of the Free Expression Solidarity Movement, have been persecuted for sending reports to the Universal Periodic Review Committee.

Mr. President, in the name of those thousands of Cubans who have been repressed and tortured, and whose fundamental rights are violated, I ask the Council to do justice for the Cuban people.

Thank you.

Universal Periodic Review: A review of the Castro dictatorship's desperate actions to cover up its dismal record

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” – Elie Wiesel

Castro regime delegation undergoes the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva

Today the third Universal Periodic Review of Cuba took place at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.  It was a circus.

The Castro regime cannot debate the facts. Instead it tries to flood the process with propaganda to drive out serious reports presented by non-governmental organizations, block dissidents from traveling to attend the review, and limit the time that democratic member states have to raise questions with cheer-leading by repressive regimes that take up time and limited interventions to 50 seconds.

Hillel Neuer of UN Watch exposed the rampant cheating of the Cuban government to avoid being evaluated during the Universal Periodic Review.

Fraud: #Cuba mocked the @UN's review of its human rights record today by submitting hundreds of fake NGO submissions hailing the repressive regime's human rights record, including from the "Cuban Federation of Canine Sports." Story by @EFEnoticias: https://t.co/eI1yZieBDo #UPR30 pic.twitter.com/OCNVCfK62v

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 16, 2018

When that fails and serious issues are raised the representatives of the dictatorship engaged in ad hominem attacks such as guilt by association to generate confusion in order to not have to answer the tough questions on its systematic violation of human rights.

According to the representatives of the Castro regime the only Cubans that can be called human rights defenders are those who fight for the revolution, i.e. the 59 year old communist dictatorship that has turned Cuba into an Orwellian nightmare. 

But when Sirley Avila Leon, who believed the promises of the revolution, sought to see them fulfilled and went through the official channels to open a school for Cuban children she was shunned, marginalized, harassed, and was nearly killed in a machete attack in 2015. Following the attack state security let doctors know that she was not to be treated.

When Dr. Eduardo Cardet, a medical doctor, followed the existing constitution to effect changes to improve the human rights situation in the island, restoring sovereignty to Cubans, and expressed his views he was beaten up, jailed and sentenced to three years in prison.

The claim by the Castro regime that it is committed to human rights is false. The dictatorship in Cuba has spent decades undermining international human rights standards. They even defended right-wing military dictatorships from being condemned at the UN Human Rights Commission and in the 1960s recruited former Nazis to train their officials.

Gabriel Salvia of the Center for Opening and Development of Latin America ( CADAL in Spanish) tweeted about the complicity of the Castro regime with the Argentine military junta and I translated it to English.

T @GabrielSalvia To the jack asses of @CubaMINREX I remind you that @FreedomHouse rated our military dictatorship between 1977 & 1978 along with Cuba, as not free. They are coherent & you refrained from condemning our dictatorship & invited Videla to the NOAL summit in Havana. https://t.co/kgBrzzUIdc

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) May 17, 2018

The Castro regime runs roughshod over human rights in Cuba, and spends an exorbitant amount of money to cover up its repressive nature. In the current worsening international human rights climate
there may not be much that can be done, but one must speak truth to power and protest. Let the world know the cynical  nature of this exercise.

T @RosaMariaPaya #CYNICS Dictatorship dares to say it respects the right to life while it still does not respond to state killings committed on the island, including attack against my father #OswaldoPaya & Harold Cepero, nor does it allow an impartial investigation. #UPR #UPRCuba https://t.co/IobftcRgwf

— John Suarez ن (@johnjsuarez) May 16, 2018

Human Rights in Cuba: Shadow UPR and three Cubans killed during the span of the current review

 “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” - Flannery O'Connor

Over the past few days this blog highlighted three cases from the past four years that highlight the cruelty of the Castro regime: in 2014 a blind attorney beaten down by state security agents; in 2015 a human rights defender and mother lost her hand and the use of her knees in a machete attack ordered by regime agents in reprisal for trying to keep a school open; and in 2016 a Cuban doctor was beaten down in front of his wife and children and taken to prison where he remains today suffering assaults and ill treatment for giving his honest opinion of the legacy of Fidel Castro.

Today in Geneva, Switzerland just steps away from where the Universal Periodic Review will be held on May 16th there was a self-described "Shadow UPR" that highlighted more recent cases, and the steps taken by the dictatorship in Cuba to avoid being held accountable. Below are the videos of the entire event and are worth watching.



Sadly there are those who will be unable to do so because they were victims of extrajudicial killings carried out by agents of the Castro over the past four years. Below are three cases, but sadly there are more.

Yunisledy Lopez Rodriguez: Brutally murdered at age 23 in 2014

Yunisledy Lopez Rodriguez was 23 years old, the mother of two small children and she lived in Vista Alegre, in the Municipality of Majabiquoa in Las Tunas, Cuba. She had suffered harassment from state security agents, who had wanted to evict her and her children from their home for her activism in the Civics and Truth movement.

Yunisledy found out that her then boyfriend "Ruber" had been given the order to kill Cuban dissident Sirley Avila Leon by state security. Yunisledy immediately told Sirley Avila Leon of the danger and on May 21,  2014 when Sirley's home was set on fire formally complained to the police. She reported that her partner had told her that he would murder Sirley and that through the above action had attempted to carry it out. The police never made a pronouncement on the matter and did nothing. 

Afterwards "Ruber" warned Yunisledy and told her that if she did not want to be killed that she should join him in Camaguey where he had been given the possibility to work as a "cuenta propista"  as a reward for carrying out his arson attack against Sirley Avila Leon and to give the impression that he was in a prison elsewhere. [This is an aspect of the job sector opportunities that Amnesty missed in their report.]

She  denounced the new threat to the police but no action was taken against him and he went away. After two months approximately September 20-21, 2014, another man,  the father of her young son appears at her home and tells her that he'll kill her. But instead rapes her in front of her children and leaves.

Immediately she went to the police and made a complaint because he was supposedly a prison escapee, but the police took no action. They told her not to worry that he was already back in prison. Yunisledy called Sirley on September 24, 2014 and told her that they both knew why he was being sent to kill her. Yunisledy asked Sirley to care for her children because she had no police protection.

On September 26, 2014 while preparing food for her children the individual known as "El Tejon" entered the house and stabbed her 18 times in front of her two kids. This was done to give the appearance of a crime of passion.

Diosbel Díaz Bioto killed on December 16, 2014

 On December 16, 2014 the Cuban coastguard ram and sank a boat with 32 refugees, one of them, Diosbel Díaz Bioto, was killed. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." This is completely and systematically violated in Cuba. 

Yuriniesky Martínez with his dad, son, and on (right) how he was found in 2015

Yuriniesky Martínez Reina (age 28) was killed by state security chief Miguel Angel Río Seco Rodríguez in the Martí municipality of Matanzas, Cuba on April 9, 2015 for trying to leave Cuba. He was part of a group of young men who were building a boat near Menéndez beach to flee the island, when they were spotted trying to leave and were shot at by state security. Yuriniesky was shot in the back and left to die.  He was found face down in some brush.

Cuba's UPR record is a shameful indictment: A regime that beats and imprisons doctors who dissent

"Facts are difficult things."  - John Adams

Prisoner of conscience Dr. Eduardo Cardet

Cuba will undergo its third Universal Periodic Review from 2:30pm to 6:00pm on May 16, 2018 Geneva time. The propaganda machine has already started up, but facts are difficult things.

The regime in Cuba calls itself a medical superpower and boasts of its medical doctors, but these health care professionals are not free, and not entitled to their opinion. Take a moment and review the case of Eduardo Cardet MD.

Medical doctor, beloved by his community, husband, and father of two. Today his life hangs in the balance in Cuba. On November 30, 2016 in front of his wife and kids he was beaten up by Castro's political police and taken away.  Amnesty International recognized him as a prisoner of conscience. He was sentenced to three years in prison on March 20, 2017 in a political show trial that violated international norms. He was badly beaten and stabbed twice by three prisoners on December 19, 2017 most likely on orders of regime agents. Family fears that he has a carcinoma on his nose that is not being treated. 

Eduardo Cardet continues to suffer this injustice in Cuba today. He is the national coordinator of the Christian Liberation Movement, a Cuban opposition movement that mobilized tens of thousands of Cubans to peacefully petition the Castro regime for democratic change. When members of his movement, on April 5, 2018, attempted to turn in a petition signed by 10,000 Cubans they were detained for 24 hours and the signatures seized by the political police. There are fears that those who signed will be persecuted.

This is the reality that the Castro regime is trying to hide behind an avalanche of propaganda. Dr. Eduardo Cardet should never have been jailed. He is a prisoner of conscience and should be free. 

He is not the first doctor imprisoned for what he thought. Decades earlier Dr. Armando Valladares would spend many years in prison for his dissenting opinion. Dr. Desi Mendoza imprisoned because he spoke out about a dengue epidemic. There have been others whose names we do not know.

Universal Periodic Review of Cuba and Sirley Avila Leon: The case the Castro regime would like to disappear

All eyes on the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Sirley Avila Leon

Next week on May 16, 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland the UPR Working Group which consists of the 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council will gather in the afternoon for four hours to examine the situation of human rights in Cuba. This is the third time such a gathering has taken place. The first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) took place on February 6, 2009 and the second was held on May 1, 2013.

On the two previous occasions and all indications are that they will be repeated next week, the Castro regime has sought to flood UPR submissions and the debate with a carefully orchestrated and obvious effort to drown out the voices of the victims, and of serious human rights analysis in a din of pro-regime propaganda.

There is one case that the Castro regime and their apologists would especially like to be forgotten, and discarded. This is the case of Sirley Avila Leon.  Sirley was a true believer who grew up in the revolution and was a member of a local municipal assembly. She believed the claims that freed education was a right for all Cubans. This belief left her an invalid and nearly led to a violent death.
She lobbied and agitated for a school to be opened in her municipality so that the children there would not have to trek 5.6 miles to go to class and then trek the same distance back to get home.

Others were not so lucky. Yunisledy Lopez Rodriguez was just 23 years old, the mother of two small children and she lived in Vista Alegre, in the Municipality of Majabiquoa in Las Tunas, Cuba. She was murdered on September 26, 2014 after having warned the delegate to the municipal assembly that regime agents were plotting to murder her for speaking out on the short comings of Cuban education.

On May 24, 2015, Sirley Ávila León was the victim of a brutal machete attack that cost her her left hand and also left her right upper arm nearly severed and knees slashed, leaving her crippled. She was denied adequate medical care and was told quietly by medical doctors that if she wanted to get better she would need to leave Cuba. The regime had been embarrassed by a campaign she organized to keep a school open. She arrived in Miami on March 8, 2016, and thanks to the Cuban exile community, a team of medical doctors attended to her, and by September of 2016 Sirley was able to return home to Cuba. She found her home occupied by strangers and went to her mother’s house. A short time later a camera was set up outside to spy on her. By mid-October 2016, Sirley was getting death threats from state security and feared for her life. She fled back to the United States a couple of weeks later and sought asylum.

Healthcare is rhetorically universal but in practice can be withdrawn or refused on the orders of the Castro regime and its secret police. This was case of Cuban dissident Sirley Avila Leon. She was not only denied adequate medical care but was prescribed treatment worsening her condition. This practice goes back decades and has cost the life of more than one human rights defender.

This terrible crime was documented and submitted by the Center for a Free Cuba (CFFC) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to the stakeholder's information page for the Universal Periodic Review that will be taking place next week. 

Below is the excerpt from the IACHR:

"On September 2, 2015, the Commission requested the adoption of precautionary measures for Sirley Ávila León. According to the application, submitted to the Commission by the Cuban Democratic Directorate, Ávila has been the object of harassment and threats that materialized in May of 2015, when the proposed beneficiary was the victim of a machete attack because of her work as a defender of human rights. After analyzing the allegations of fact and law submitted by the applicant, the Commission considers that the information reveals that Sirley Ávila León is in a serious and urgent situation, since her life and physical integrity are at risk. Therefore, according to Article 25 of the Regulations of the IACHR, the Commission asked Cuba to take the necessary measures to guarantee the life and physical integrity of the beneficiary and that she be able to carry out her activities as a human rights defender without being a target of acts of violence and harassment. It also requests the State to arrange with the beneficiary and her representatives on the measures taken and to report actions to take to investigate the alleged events that led to the adoption of this precautionary measure and thus to avoid its repetition." Read the resolution.

Below is the excerpt from CFFC:

Extrajudicial violence: The case of Sirley Avila Leon

8. Sirley Ávila León was a delegate to the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power in Cuba since June 2005 for the rural area of Limones, in the province of Cienfuegos. The authorities removed her from that position in 2012 because she had fought to reopen a school in her district. Her efforts were ignored by official channels, and responding to her constituents complaints, she reached out to international media. Her son, Yoerlis Peña Ávila, who had an 18 year career in the Cuban military, was forced out when he refused to declare Sirley insane and commit his mother to a psychiatric facility. This is not the first case in which the government uses internment in psychiatric institutions and the misuse of psychotropic drugs against dissidents.

9. Ms Ávila León joined UNPACU, a human rights organization which is denied the required registration and repression against her increased. On May 24, 2015 she was the victim of a machete attack carried out by Osmany Carriòn, with the complicit assistance of his wife, that led to the loss of her left hand, right upper arm nearly severed, and knees slashed into leaving her crippled. She did not receive adequate medical care and was told quietly by doctors that if she wanted to get better that she would need to leave the country.

10. On March 8, 2016 she arrived in Miami and began medical treatments over the next six months during which she was able to walk again, although still limited due to her injuries. She returned to Cuba on September 7, 2016 to find her home occupied by strangers and her attacker, Osmany Carriòn, free and bragging that he “would finish the job.” She moved in with her mother and within a short time a camera and microphone were set up across from her mother's home on a post by the authorities. Threats against her life intensified leading her to flee to the United States and request asylum on October 28, 2016.

11. Sirley’s son, Yoerlis Peña Ávila on March 15, 2017 was working when a man he did not know told him “that it was better that the legal demand not be continued because you did not know the risk in which you were exposing me and my grandmother.” The threat is in response to Sirley Avila Leon’s legal demand presented to recover 126,000 Cuban pesos ($4754) in damages resulting from the May 24, 2015 machete attack.

What was done to Sirley Avila Leon exposed the brutal nature of the regime and the terrible truth that the Castro dictatorship in Cuba does not belong on the UN Human Rights Council as a member but rather its members should be in the Hague answering for their crimes against humanity.

Déjà vu: Venezuela's Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council

Today reading UN Watch's report on the UN Human Rights Council review of Venezuela's human rights record it gave me déjà vu because I'd seen this before during the last Cuba UPR in 2013. Below is a summary of the report released earlier today by UN Watch.

Nicolas Maduro with UN prize for combating hunger—Venezuelans are in fact starving.

Venezuela used 500 front groups to subvert today’s UN review of its rights record 

GENEVA, Nov. 1, 2016 – UN chief Ban Ki-moon and human rights high commissioner Zeid Hussein are being called upon to investigate how their officials allowed Venezuela to commit “fraud on a massive scale” to influence today’s UN review of the country’s human rights record by using hundreds of “front groups” to submit comments favorable to the regime, a watchdog group reported.

While “an astronomical amount of 519 supposedly non-governmental organizations” submitted comments for Venezuela’s review, only 54 commented on Uganda, 26 on Syria,  23 for South Sudan, and 20 on Zimbabwe, according to a new report published by UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental human rights monitoring group.

Although “critiques by genuine NGOs do appear, they are overwhelmed by an unprecedented amount of submissions by fraudulent ‘NGOs’ that, if  they do exist, are either controlled by the government of Venezuela, or by its allies Cuba and Bolivia,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch and an international lawyer.

“This is fraud committed on a massive scale,” said Neuer, as Venezuela’s foreign minister appeared before the UN Human Rights Council this morning in Geneva, Switzerland, to present her government’s case. The UNHRC audits each nation every five years for its Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

“Venezuela used hundreds of front groups to hijack the United Nations database and compilation summary of NGO submissions, and turn it into a propaganda sheet for the regime of President Nicolas Maduro,” said Neuer.

The UPR is not binding on anyone “but does have an impact because it’s a megaphone, a podium, which does shape the way people think and it’s a source of legitimacy,” said Neuer.

“Among the 500 groups absurdly praising Venezuela’s alleged human rights accomplishments include the Bolivian Baseball Association, the Cuban Federation of Canine Sports, and the ‘Association for Obvious Things,’ a group in Slovenia that hailed Venezuela’s record on combating hunger,” said the UN Watch report.

“The result is that the review today of Venezuela’s human rights record is being conducted based on a massive amount of manifestly false information,” concludes the report.

Under UN rules, the world body is only supposed to gather submissions that provide “credible and reliable information.” The report calls on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Hussein to investigate “how and why their officials failed to screen out submissions that clearly do not meet this standard.”

“Ban Ki-moon and High Commissioner Zeid should declared Venezuela guity of conempt for the Human Rights Council on which it sits,” said Neuer.

UN Watch has often criticized the Council itself for electing non-democracies, including Venezuela itself last year, as members.

On Friday UN Watch slammed the re-election of Saudi Arabia, China and Cuba to the Council. “Electing the Saudis to the UN’s highest human rights body like making a pyromaniac into the fire chief,” said Neuer.

During the UNHRC meeting today on Venezuela, the Syria, North Korea, and Iran praised Venezuela while Western nations criticized its abuses and lack of democracy. All the comments and Venezuela’s responses are eventually added to the UPR.

The UN Watch report, titled “Fraud on the UN: Venezuela’s Corruption of its 2016 UPR Human Rights Review,” gives 20 examples of praise heaped by the NGOs on the socialist-run regime.

Among the “NGOs” were several organizations controlled by the Cuban Communist Party—and having no obvious expertise on the human rights claims in their submissions—such as the Cuban Association of Animal Production, the Cuban Federation of Underwater Activities, the Cuban Society for Philosophical Investigations, and the Cuban Society for Urology.

Also commenting were numerous Bolivian groups including the Bolivian Association of Plastic Arts.

According to the UN compilation document, despite Venezuela’s mass hunger, a Slovenian-based group called the “Association for Obvious Things” hailed Venezuela for being “recognized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization for surpassing the first Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger.” (See full submission here.)

The UN document also reported that “a total of 238 organizations” welcomed “the reinforcement of people’s power and popular governance” in Venezuela. “Yet the truth is that the democratic opposition leaders like Antonio Ledezma and Leopoldo Lopez have had their freedom taken away,” said Neuer.

“A total of 40 organizations” reported Venezuela’s alleged “advances in the provision of free education at all levels.” A group called Desarrolo Humano Integral stated that in Venezuela “there is freedom of religion, belief, expression of ideas and thought, association, assembly and peaceful demonstration.” Neuer said this too was false: “The regime routinely arrests dissidents for the crimes of peaceful demonstrations.”

The UN reported that 24 organizations praised Venezuela for “positive outcomes” including a “reduction in school dropout rates and the introduction of a school meals program.” A total of 21 organizations reported that “progress had been made in adopting health legislation to ensure compliance with constitutional provisions prescribing free, high-quality health services for all.” In reality, said Neuer, the state of health in Venezuela is “a catastrophe—people are desperate for basic medicines.”

For full report, click here

Genuine NGOs and the 2013 UPR Review of Cuba

"Yet is it far better to light the candle than to curse the darkness." W.L. Watkins (1907)

United Nations Human Rights Council

UN Watch in their report "Massive Fraud: The Corruption of the 2013 UPR Review of Cuba" exposed how the Cuban government has corrupted and abused the Universal Periodic Review process. One of the regime's tactics was to flood the NGO process with front groups. In its summary, UN Watch described how:

Cuba used hundreds of front groups to hijack the United Nations compilation of NGO submissions and turn it into a propaganda sheet for the Castro Communist regime. While critiques of genuine NGOs do appear, they are overwhelmed by an unprecedented amount of submissions by fraudulent “NGOs” that, if they do exist, are mere puppets of Cuba and its allies abroad. UN Watch examined 28 recent UPR country reviews. There were 9 NGO submissions on Turkmenistan, 12 on Romania, 23 on Germany, 32 on Russia, and, the highest, 48 on Canada. For Cuba, however, the number soars to an incredible 454. 

One way to counter the abuse and corruption of the process is to highlight the genuine NGOs that offered a genuine critique of the dictatorship in Cuba.  Respected international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Centrist Democrat International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters sans frontières submitted important reports as did independent groups from inside Cuba such as the Alianza Democrática Oriental, Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba, Coalición Central Opositora and the Movimiento Femenino por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks. Outside of Cuba diaspora organizations such as the Cuban Democratic Directorate and the Coalition of Cuban-American Women submitted reports.

The Universal Periodic Review Process

Below is a complete listing of these groups with links to their reports stored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

Alianza Democrática Oriental; comunicación conjunta para el examen periódico universal; Cuba
 http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/ADO_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_AlianzaDemocraticaOriental_S.pdf

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SUBMISSION TO THE UN UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW 16TH SESSION OF THE UPR WORKING GROUP, APRIL-MAY 2013
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/AI_UPR_CUB_s16_2013_AmnestyInternational_E.pdf

ASOCIACIÓN JURÍDICA CUBANA Cuba Información para el Examen Periódico Universal de la ONU
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/AJC_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_AsociacionJuridicaCubana_S.pdf

Contribution de Reporters sans frontières, organisation non gouvernementale dotée du statut consultatif spécial, à propos de la situation de la liberté de la presse à Cuba
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/RSF_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ReportersSansFronti%C3%A8res_F.pdf

Informe del Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos para el Grupo de Trabajo de la Revisión Periódica Universal (UPR)http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/OCDH_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ObservatorioCubanoDeDerechosHumanos_S.pdf

Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba. (CRDHC). En coordinación con los Círculos Democráticos Municipalistas. (CDM)
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS1_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission1_S.pdf

Coalición Central Opositora y Movimiento Femenino por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks Agresiones contra mujeres defensoras de derechos humanos en Cuba Revisión Periódica Universal de Cuba 2013
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS2_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission2_S.pdf

Contribución Conjunta del Centro de Información Legal “Cubalex” y la Asociación Cubana para el Desarrollo de la Educación Infantil
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS7_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission7_S.pdf

CUBA: SYSTEMATIC STATE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Coalition of Cuban-American Women
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCAW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CoalitionOfCubanAmericanWomen_E.pdf

Informe del Comite Ciudadano Contra los Malos Tratos.
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCCMT_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ComiteCiudadanoContraLosMalosTrat_S.pdf

Presentación de la Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional (CCDHRN)* para el Examen Periódico Universal (EPU)
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCDHRN_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Comisi%C3%B3nCubanaDeDerechosHumanosYRecoS.pdf

Comunicación Individual del Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina (CADAL), ante el Examen Periódico Universal de Cuba.”
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CADAL_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CentroParaLaperturaYElDesarrolloDe_S.pdf

Individual report from the Centrist Democrat International for the April-May 2013 Universal Periodic Review of the government of Cuba
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CDI_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CentristDemocratInternational_S.pdf

Universal Periodic Review – 16th Session CSW – Stakeholder Submission CUBA
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CSW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ChristianSolidarityWorldwide_E.pdf

Extrajudicial Killings and Suspicious Deaths in Cuba 2009 - 2012
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/DDC_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_DirectorioDemocr%C3%A1ticoCubano_E.pdf

Human Rights Watch UPR Submission Cuba October 2012
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/HRW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_HumanRightsWatch_E.pdf

Yris Perez Aguilera and the profound disconnect between Cuba's reality and the propaganda image

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera showing cyst product of beatings

 Just five days before the United Nations Human Rights Council subjects the state of Cuba to its quadrennial Universal Periodic Review there is a profound disconnect between the reality suffered by Cubans on the island and the propaganda offensive underway internationally. There has been an effort to portray the Cuban government as engaging in reforms and doing something different that it has done over the past 54 years. Cuban dissident leaders have called it cosmetic and fraudulent. Some observers point to a handful of dissidents finally being able to travel outside of Cuba after having been denied their right to travel on numerous occasions.

Three who are regularly cited are Rosa Maria Payá, Berta Soler, and Yoani Sanchez. All had their right to travel systematically denied in recent years, but in the case of Rosa Maria Paya and Yoani Sanchez both had traveled outside of Cuba and returned home years ago. Opposition leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Rosa Maria's father - who died under suspicious circumstances on July 22, 2012 - traveled outside of Cuba in December of 2002 to accept the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Union. Other Cuban dissidents in prior years had been allowed to travel at specific moments were it served the dictatorship's interests. The same holds true now. This is part of an international charm offensive, but the brutal nature of the dictatorship remains intact. Witness the plight of Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera.

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera in April of 2013

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera has been the target of a slow motion assassination attempt by Cuban State Security. She has been the target of several brutal attacks by state security agents who time and time again have hit her in the head repeatedly to the point of unconsciousness then blocked her from receiving adequate medical care. She has a large cyst in the back of her head, a product of the beatings, and other symptoms that are the result of years of abuse at the hands of the regime's agents. The latest attack took place on April 26, 2013:

Placetas, Cuba, April 26, 2013.

The following text was taken and translated from the Cuban Democratic Directorate of the April 25, 2013 statement made by the human rights defender:

Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, president of the Rosa Parks Women's Movement for Civil Rights was again beaten and arrested twice on April 25, 2013 when she left to find medicines on her way to the pharmacy in Placetas, Villa Clara.

"My name is Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, activist for the Rosa Parks Civil Rights Movement. This April 25, 2013 I was arrested for the second time while trying to get to the pharmacy here, "Rafael", to buy the medicines that the doctor on call had prescribed for me, as I was with the pressure at 150/90. I was arrested and taken to the police station, by the police officer "Acaena" who on the first occasion I was arrested hit me hard on the head. --I am wearing a brace--; She beat me through the brace and on the head. They kept me there in front of the cell for fifteen to twenty minutes,” reported Yris.

The activist continued her statement alerting that Cuban State Security prevents her from leaving home and that she does not accept her home "as a dungeon" and indicated that she would leave again. “I told the head of the police station, Raul Asari, that I would go out again, and that they should leave me in the police station because I was going to head back out to get my medicines. I am not going to let them try to blackmail me because I feel that I am a free citizen and there is no court order that says that I cannot leave my house," she concluded.

Below is the recording from April 25, 2013 from which the above transcription was taken.



Furthermore, the violence visited on Yris is not unique there have been other women who have suffered physical brutality at the hands of Cuban government agents over the past four years and especially over the past few months. Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo has returned to Cuba with death threats against her and her family and official publications threatening her with prison for demanding an investigation into her father's death. Nonviolent activists have died under suspicious circumstances while others have been savagely beaten. To ignore this reality is to invite more and worse violence against Cuba's nonviolent civic movement.