Fundamental Rights and Legal and Institutional order in Cuba

By Ricardo M. Rojas

 

 

 

 

Introduction

PART ONE

INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

I. Protection of the rights of man.
Characteristics of human rights.

II. International law of human rights.
Incorporation of international law of human rights into Latin American constitutions.
The 1994 Constitution of Argentina

III. Human rights in Cuba

PART TWO

THE VIOLATION OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS IN CUBA'S INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL SYSTEM.

IV. Supremacy of the aims of the State over the fundamental rights of man.
Supremacy of the State in the Cuban Constitution.
Use of penal law as a tool of social control. Scope of the definition of penal offenses.
Protection of the aims of the State in Cuban penal law.
Death penalty for political reasons.

V. Concentration of power in State organs.

VI. Absence of independent and impartial justice.

VII. Serious injury to personal freedom.
Dangerousness as the basis of the penal system.
Dangerousness and pre-criminal security measures in the Cuban Penal Code.
Guarantees of defense in trial and due process.

VIII. Restrictions to property rights and control of economic activity.
Nationalization of economic activity.
Control of labor activity.

IX. Constitutional obstacles to freedom of speech, information and press.
Explicit restrictions to freedom of speech and State monopoly of the media in Cuba.
Persecution of the independent press.

X. Restrictions to freedom of association, assembly and petition.
Freedom of association.
Freedom of assembly.
Freedom to petition before authorities.

XI. Use of education as a tool of propaganda and social control.
Independent libraries.

XII. Restrictions to the right to enter and leave the country.

Conclusion.

ANNEX

SELECTION OF ARTICLES OF THE CUBAN PENAL CODE (Law 62).
LAW 88 FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND ECONOMY OF CUBA.
ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF THE VARELA PROJECT.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT

Ricardo M. Rojas

Ricardo M. Rojas fue Juez de un Tribunal en lo Criminal en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, autor de libro "Las contradicciones del derecho penal". Ex Secretario Letrado de la Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación y ex-Vicepresidente de la Fundación Hayek