Miami Law’s Human Rights Clinic Partners to Publish Report on Cuba

By Miami Law Staff Report 06-08-2022

Miami Law’s Human Rights Clinic, Cuba Missing, Cubalex, and the International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights, together with the numerous supporting human rights organizations listed below, recently published a report titled “Human Rights in Contemporary Cuba: The Enduring Impact of the July 11 2021, Protests.”

The report, authored by Human Rights Clinic students Allison Dopazo, 2L, Yanitza Sanchez, 2L, and David Van Sickle, 3L, summarizes the events leading up to the historic protests throughout Cuba last July and details the Cuban government’s numerous human rights violations in response.

Tens of thousands of Cubans took to the streets on July 11, 2021, during the largest anti-government protest to occur on the island since 1994. The spontaneous nature of the protests caught the government by surprise. It allowed ordinary Cubans to quickly share information through social media, which led to the spread of protests in every province of the island. The Cuban government responded to these peaceful calls for improved conditions on the island with brutality and repression. Thousands of protesters were imprisoned or confined to their homes, awaiting trial for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of association and making demands on their government.

The Cuban government held summary trials without legal representation and due process rights required by international law. This resulted in hundreds of individuals, including minors, sentenced to prison terms averaging between 10 and 20 years.

“Cuban authorities have ratcheted up penalties to make an example of the protestors and stifle future protests,” said Laritza Diversent, director of the U.S.-based human rights group Cubalex and a Cuban attorney.

To document the escalating human rights crisis in Cuba, the Human Rights Clinic partnered with the Cuba Missing Legal Initiative, an effort organized by local transformational entrepreneur, documentarian, and Cuban American activist Janelle Gueits. “Since having the extraordinary honor to meet courageous Cuban youth on the island and co-found Roots of Hope in 2004 with youth across the U.S., I have seen dire need and great power of people uniting together,” recalled Gueits. “Waves of Cuban youth sacrifice themselves in the name of freedom and justice each year and we must not allow their voices to be silenced and existence erased by the Cuban government, but instead must learn from them what it means to cherish and activate our own freedom in just causes such as this.”

The International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights, focused on supporting movements and advocates before the inter-American human rights system, was also a key partner.

“Given that the Cuban government consistently refuses to engage in good faith discussions of its human rights record before international bodies and with Cuban activists, it is incredibly important for human rights organizations to document abuses on the island to raise international awareness,” said Christina Fetterhoff, director of programs for the International Institute on Race, Equality, and Human Rights. “Heightened international awareness can place pressure on governments to demand that Cuba respect the human rights of its citizens.”

Miami Law students provided the Cuba Missing initiative with a legal analysis of the human rights standards that Cuba has committed to uphold and the necessary elements that must be proven to show violations of those standards. The published report seeks to contextualize the historic nature of the protests for an audience that may not be familiar with the current crisis in Cuba.

“It was an honor to support this cause,” said Van Sickle. “We hope this analysis will help the initiative gather evidence of human rights violations and refer cases to international and regional human rights monitoring bodies, as well as raise awareness among the broader public.”