On the critical situation in Cuba

B90144/2024

European Parliament resolution on the critical situation in Cuba

(2024/2584(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Cuba, in particular its resolution of 12 July 2023 on the state of the EU-Cuba PDCA in the light of the recent visit of the High Representative to the island,

– having regard to the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Cuba, of the other part (PDCA) signed in December 2016 and provisionally applied since 1 November 2017,

– having regard to Article 5 of the Cuban Constitution,

– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966 and other international human rights treaties and instruments,

– having regard to the definition of ‘civil society organisation’ in the Official Journal of the European Union,

– having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas Parliament gave its consent to the PDCA on 5 July 2017, with clear conditions linked to the improvement of human rights and democracy in Cuba, including a suspension clause in the event of a violation of human rights provisions; whereas the accompanying resolution asked the Cuban authorities to allow Parliament delegations to enter the country and have access to their interlocutors;

B. whereas several articles of the EU-Cuba PDCA, namely Articles 1, 2 and 3, establish clear principles on equality, reciprocity, mutual respect, strengthening of contacts, dialogue and cooperation between both societies;

C. whereas the number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Cuba has risen dramatically, reaching 1 066 on 31 January 2024, including 33 who were minors at the time of detention, an eightfold increase since 2018, rising by 170 in the last 12 months, equivalent to a monthly average of more than 14 politically motivated detentions; whereas human rights organisations have also documented more than 11 000 cases of ‘pre criminal’ convictions with sentences averaging 2 years and 10 months;

D. whereas the UN previously expressed its concern to Cuba about the detention and imprisonment of religious leaders in the country; whereas on 16 November 2023, five mandates and rapporteurs of the UN Special Procedures sent Cuba a Communication in which they described and condemned Cuba’s systematic pattern of persecution, imprisonment and torture of evangelical pastors and Catholic priests, Muslim imams, and Yoruba/Santería religious leaders;

E. whereas human rights organisations continue to document the ongoing crackdown on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in the country and the Cuban authorities’ stifling of dissenting voices and targeting of human rights defenders;

F. whereas Parliament has repeatedly reminded the EEAS that the participation of representatives of independent civil society in political dialogues and the agreement’s cooperation projects is an essential part of the PDCA, as stressed in its Article 36, and that excluding representatives of independent civil society from cooperation funds and/or participation in the agreement while, on the contrary, allowing participation and access to cooperation funds exclusively for companies in which the state participates or which it controls, as has been the case since the signing of the agreement, should be remedied immediately;

G. whereas on 2 January 2024, the UN publicly disclosed the letter of indictment sent to the Cuban regime accusing it of forced labour, one of the forms of modern slavery denounced by the Special Rapporteurs on Human Trafficking and Slavery; whereas several international organisations have denounced that Cuban civilian workers such as doctors, teachers, sailors, engineers, artists and athletes serving abroad are subjected to human trafficking by inherently coercive laws and regulations explicitly affecting basic freedoms, such as Article 176 of the Penal Code, Mincex Resolution 368 of 2020, the Migration Law, and Decree 306 of 2012, among others;

H. whereas the regime gradually imposed on Cuba rules out any prospect of democratic change, as Article 5 of the Cuban Constitution states that the ‘unique, Martí, Fidelista and Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Cuba’ is the superior political force and ruler of society and the state, and as Articles 4 and 229 establish the current political system as irrevocable;

I. whereas despite years of insisting on the need to visit the island, the Cuban authorities systematically refuse to allow official committees, delegations and some political groups from the European Parliament, international human rights organisations and other independent observers of the human rights situation, including UN special rapporteurs, to enter Cuba;

J. whereas on 23 November 2023, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament authorised the sending of an ad hoc delegation to Cuba following a letter of invitation from the Ambassador of Cuba to Belgium and the European Union dated 20 September 2023; whereas on 19 December 2023, the Vice President of the Cuban Parliament informed the EU ambassador in Cuba of its refusal to receive Parliament’s delegation with the justification that it did ‘not wish to receive the visit of Members of the European Parliament who work against Cuba’s interests and are completely aligned with the United States’; whereas the Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba, in a letter dated 25 January 2024, addressed to the President of the European Parliament, referred to the President of the ad hoc delegation of the European Parliament to Cuba and two other members, as ‘maintaining links and supporting citizens and organisations included in the National List of persons and entities ... based on acts of terrorism’; whereas in November 2023, a delegation of the Cuban Parliament was received at the European Parliament’s premises;

K. whereas Parliament has awarded its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Cuban activists on three occasions: Oswaldo Payá in 2002, the Ladies in White in 2005 and Guillermo Fariñas in 2010; whereas Sakharov laureates and their relatives are still being regularly harassed, intimidated and prevented from leaving the country and participating in international events;

L. whereas the PDCA has failed in its core aim of improving fundamental freedoms in Cuba;

1. Regrets that, despite the time that has elapsed since the entry into force of the PDCA, the situation in terms of democracy, freedoms and human rights in Cuba has not improved; highlights that on the contrary, there has been a further deterioration and worsening of the human rights situation on the island, in clear and systematic violation of the basic provisions of the Agreement;

2. Stresses the obligation for all parties to fulfil the binding provisions of the PDCA and to uphold the principle of the universality of human rights; recalls that the PDCA contains a ‘human rights clause’, as a standard essential element of EU international agreements, that allows the suspension of the agreement in the event of violations of human rights provisions;

3. Condemns in the strongest terms the systematic human rights violations and abuses against protesters, political dissidents, religious leaders, human rights activists and independent artists, among others, perpetrated by the Cuban regime; urges the Cuban authorities to immediately put an end to the policy of repression; condemns the lack of religious freedom in Cuba;

4. Is concerned at the alarming increase in the number of political prisoners, which has risen more than eightfold since 2018, making Cuba the biggest prison for political activists and dissidents in Latin America; calls for the immediate and unconditional release of individuals arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; calls for abusive criminal charges to be dropped and for those in exile to be allowed to return to their country;

5. Denounces the Cuban regime’s practice of excluding legitimate civil society organisations from EU-Cuba civil society seminars; declares unacceptable that the EEAS and the EU Delegation in Havana agreed to the exclusion of the Cuban democratic opposition along with independent and legitimate Cuban and European civil society organisations from political and human rights dialogues owing to their lack of endorsement by Cuban authorities, thus depriving the PDCA of an essential part of its purpose and contravening the will of Parliament and the EU Member States that signed it;

6. Expresses its deep concern over the existence of forced labour in Cuba and condemns Cuban state-driven forced labour, in particular in medical brigades, but also involving teachers, sailors, engineers, artists, athletes and others; denounces the fact that 78 % of the ‘volunteers’ in international missions stated they were deployed against their will or had to participate under coercive structural conditions;

7. Notes that in November 2023, members of the Cuban Parliament, including the Secretary of the Cuban National Parliament, Homero Acosta, were accorded respectful treatment and warmly received at the European Parliament; declares the continued exclusion of the European Parliament, which is the sole European institution denied access to Cuban territory, to be unacceptable and in violation of the PDCA; rejects Cuba’s decision to refuse a visit by an ad hoc delegation from Parliament and urges the Cuban authorities to adhere to the principles of the PDCA and grant Parliament access to the country; requests that, in accordance with the PDCA’s principles of equality, reciprocity and mutual respect, similar measures be adopted, denying access to Parliament’s premises to any representative of the National Assembly of People’s Power or of the Cuban regime, and that this refusal of access be extended to other EU institutions;

8. Demands that, in accordance with the PDCA, the Cuban authorities grant access for a delegation from the European Parliament, other EU institutions and the Member States, as well as from independent human rights organisations, in order to monitor trials and visit the hundreds of activists and ordinary Cubans who remain imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly; calls on the VP/HR to raise the fact that Parliament has yet again been denied access in any contact with the Cuban authorities and to urge them to reverse this decision immediately;

9. Reiterates its call on the Council to apply the provisions of the EU Global Human Rights Sanction Regime (the EU Magnitsky Act) and adopt sanctions against those responsible for the persistent human rights violations in Cuba, starting by sanctioning Miguel Díaz-Canel, as the most senior figure in the chain of command of the Cuban security forces, along with other high-ranking officials within the Cuban Government and all those responsible for the imprisonment of political prisoners;

10. Reiterates its call for the EU to trigger Article 85(3)(b) of the PDCA to request an immediate meeting of the joint committee owing to the Cuban Government’s breaches of the agreement, which constitute a ‘case of special urgency’ that should lead to the suspension of the agreement; underlines that these breaches involve persistent and substantial violations of democratic principles, as well as a disregard for the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and emphasised in Article 1(5) of the PDCA; stresses that the Cuban regime’s failure to address such transgressions despite repeated calls from Parliament to do so should lead to the suspension of the agreement;

11. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Government and National Assembly of People’s Power of Cuba, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Commission, the EU Special Representative for Human Rights, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the governments of the members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.