The Cuban regime is once again undergoing the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR). In the previous UPR, in 2018, it received 339 recommendations and accepted 226, but the reality is that Havana has ignored most of the issues, including those it supposedly acknowledged.
For this new edition of the survey, Cubans' perceptions of follow-through on the recommendations related to public policies is that it has been almost nil. In fact, a decrease has been observed, not only in the quantity of these policies, but also in their efficacy.
What were the recommendations issued to the Cuban government in the last UPR on public and social policies?
In a review of the suggestions Havana received in the previous review, DIARIO DE CUBA found more than 43 issues related to public policy.
"Continue with measures to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; combat racism and racial discrimination and discrimination against women; expand measures to prevent and treat diseases; promote access to information and culture; promote equal access to job opportunities; strengthen laws to protect labor and social rights; improve means of protection for people in vulnerable conditions," were some of the recommendations.
In 2018 Havana was called upon to undertake "initiatives to protect and support the elderly", to "promote measures that benefit young people living in urban settings," to guarantee "economic, social and cultural rights," as well as "the right to food, especially for children," to make further "progress to combat social inequalities" and improve "health services and social benefits," including "access to sex education and reproductive health."
As regards public health and education, the centerpieces of Castroist propaganda, the recommendations were numerous: "develop policies for access to quality medical services; consolidate the quality of the health system; continue with universal and free access to the health system; ensure universal and free access to education; improve artistic education; continue promoting the quality of education; continue pursuing the realization of the right to education; and promote equal educational opportunities for women and girls."
The Cuban government was also encouraged to improve the quality of services at cultural institutions; to strengthen the special education system for children, adolescents and young people; adopt measures to increase the number of children, adolescents and young people with disabilities at the different levels of education; promote equality between men and women; empower women; and apply a gender perspective in national policies."
The "adoption of measures to encourage activities for youth; promote the best interests of children; protect the rights of persons with special needs; improve the legal framework for persons with disabilities; and support Cuban organizations for persons with disabilities" were other recommendations.
The 2018 UPR also urged Havana to "provide protection and social welfare services to mothers of children with disabilities; prioritize efforts and policies addressing the needs of persons with disabilities; and implement immigration policy reform to benefit Cubans."
The reality of social policies, five years on
The panorama, as regards public policies in Cuba, is dismal. Social media, one of the few mechanisms Cubans have to voice their dissatisfaction with the system, and social problems, functions like a great ombudsman. There, people's real problems with access to public health, and its precarious conditions, have been brought to light, in the midst of shortages of medicines and adequate treatments for chronic diseases. More and more frequent in these virtual spaces are desperate requests by people in need of treatments or surgeries that doctors on the island are unable to offer.
The public health crisis clashes with the fact that it is a sector that actually brings in foreign funds thanks to the sale of professional services. Part of these profits should be used to improve the national health system, but, in practice, there are no results.
In 2018 DIARIO DE CUBA featured an investigation of this issue, with the report revealing that in the previous 20 years, 120 hospitals and 20,000 beds had "disappeared" from official statistics.
Cuba's Ministry of Public Health reported an infant mortality rate of 7.5 per 1,000 live births in 2022, equivalent to 39 fewer deaths than in 2021, when that indicator was 7.6, the highest in two decades, and a 55% increase over 2020.
Of the 168 municipalities on the island, only 21 had no deaths among children under one year of age, according to the report.
Thus far this year, the authorities have spoken out to exculpate doctors and other professionals of the deaths of babies covered on social media due to parents' complaints.
Policies for young people are far from bearing fruit, as legal and illegal migration are on the rise. According to a survey by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights, young people consider Cuba's political system the fundamental problem, and 74% negatively evaluate the government's economic and social management.
Nothing new has been generated regarding the protection of persons with disabilities. The Family Code recognized rights and institutions to guarantee these people's lives in society, but to date little to nothing has been implemented. Facebook features constant cases of people with disabilities due to age, health issues and accidents whose relatives feel totally abandoned by the authorities.
Regarding food, in mid-December last year, Miguel Díaz-Canel had to acknowledge that the country has a food law, but there was no food; a fishing law, but there was no fish, and he was about to approve a law for the promotion of livestock, but there was no livestock.
Without delving too deep into the subject, and mentioning just one basic product in the Cubans' diets, there is the case of rice: domestic production does not meet demand, so the country depends on donations.
Last week, a long line to buy rice formed at the market known as "El Grocery de la Caridad," in the municipality of Camagüey, a rice-producing province.
According to several people present in the line, the State had announced the unrestricted sale of rice there, but, according to the government officials in charge of controlling it, just ten pounds of rice would be sold per person, at 72 pesos each.
In January an article in the state paper Granma admitted that production of the food had plummeted since 2018 and the outlook will not improve in 2023.
In addition, in March 2023 the Government had to recognize that 2021 was one of the worst years for agriculture in Cuba, and the shortages have only worsened until today.
As a final example of social policies that have not been brought to fruition, Cuban women remain unprotected against gender violence and discrimination. And, although feminist movements have repeatedly demanded the approval of a Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence, the Cuban Government has limited itself to a program that continues to neglect many issues, and is incapable of averting the current wave of femicides.
Just four days after Miguel Díaz-Canel announced, for the first time, "zero tolerance" for male violence in Cuba, independent civil society platforms that monitor this scourge, without state support, raised the number of femicides on the island to 26 in just over four months.