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HUMAN RIGHTS
The Right to Safety
The government's practice of organizing "acts of repudiation" --where
all manner of threats, insults and bodily harm against dissidents and
human rights activists are perpetrated-- as well as the creation of para-military
brigades to physically assault those who protest against the
dictatorship, are evidence of the violence by which the government
silences claims for the respect for human rights.
Figure 4 shows a photography taken by the international press agency
Reuters of a para-military "Rapid Response Brigade" armed with clubs,
ready to carry out an act of physical aggression against a human rights
group.
Cuba was one of the few, if not the only, country where an official
celebration for International Human Rights Day was not held in honor of
the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, but instead arrested and beat dissidents. When members of
the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights attempted a public reading of the
30 articles contained in the declaration in Butari Park, located in the
Luyanó sector of Havana, they were violently dissolved.
In prisons, beatings are systematic and hunger is used as a punitive
measure. Torture is also practiced against prisoners, especially
political prisoners. International human rights organisms that monitor
Cuba, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Pax Christi,
consistently report on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment in Cuban
prisons.
The 264 prisons identified across the island, with a penal population of
approximately 280,000 prisoners, equivalent to 2.5% of the Cuban
population, are a clear indicator of the social crisis Cuba is
suffering. There is no other country in the world with a higher
proportion of its population in prison.
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