Thanks to your support and taking action, this petition to expel Cuba from the UN Human Rights Council has amassed over 300 petitioners. Please share this petition with others.
Brandon David Becerra Curbelo turned 18 in November in a Cuban prison, and is now serving a 13 year prison sentence for peacefully protesting on July 11, 2021. Should a regime that outlaws nonviolent dissent, including freedom of expression be sitting on the UN Human Rights Council?
The NBC article shared below lacks imagination. There is another option to engaging with the dictatorship in a policy of unilateral concessions, hoping to gain some influence, or as the article critiques "messaging to the Cuban government ... via tweet” and that would be to raise the cost of repression.
It did work before, during the last time it was seriously tried, during the Reagan-Bush years. It was the only time that the International Committee of the Red Cross was able to enter Cuban prisons, and Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were able to officially visit the island.
The expulsion of Cuba from the UN Human Rights Council for the reasons listed in this petition, and there are many more, would be a good start.
The Christian Liberation Movement highlighted eleven measures that democracies could take to engage with the Cuban people while ostracizing the Castro dictatorship.
NBC News, April 12, 2022
'Drip drip' of harsh sentences for Cuba protesters deters engagement from U.S.
The long prison terms dump "a whole bucket of cold water over any push for improving relations," said Ric Herrero of the Cuba Study Group.
By Carmen Sesin
MIAMI — Brandon David Becerra Curbelo turned 18 in November in a Cuban prison.
The Havana resident was recently sentenced to 13 years for public disorder, sedition and other charges after he took part in unprecedented, historic protests that rocked the island in July.
"He doesn’t even know why he is in prison," his mother, Yanaisy Curbelo, said by phone from Cuba. "He tells me: ‘Mamá, I don’t understand. I yelled ‘Patria y Vida’ and ‘Cuba is hungry,’ but I didn’t do anything else.’”