Cuba's Supreme Court has announced that it handed down 18 convictions for Violence Against Women in 2022. In a press release circulated by the official press on May 15, the regime's justice authority assured that it "acts with consistent severity within the framework of what is established by law," imposing "sanctions of incarceration for more than 25 years and, in some cases, life imprisonment."
The court pointed to its sentences as an example of "the Cuban State’s prioritization of guaranteeing effective equality in the enjoyment and exercise of rights, promoting the comprehensive development of women and their full social participation, as well as protecting them from gender and family violence in any of its forms."
This number of convictions issued against femicides is paltry, however, in view of the fact that macho violence claimed at least 145 lives of women, girls and boys in Cuba from 2019 to the present, according to the reporting done by the independent observatories of Cuban feminist platforms. In 2022 alone there were more than 30 femicides.
The Supreme Court’s decision, which Cuba's Yo Sí Te Creo (IBelieveYou) movement has labelled "punitive populism," is published at a time when Havana is poised to undergo the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review. Thus, the regime will be scrutinized for its observance of recommendations related to the empowerment of women and the application of the gender perspective in national policies. In this context, Cuba has yet to approve a Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence and has been called out for not having ratified the Optional Protocol of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Although the Penal Code that entered into force in December 2022 establishes the deaths of women victims of gender violence as "murder," entailing penalties ranging from 20 years to the death penalty, the legislative compendium does not expressly include the crime of femicide, one of the fundamental demands of Cuban feminists.
The release issued by the Supreme applauds that 18 murderers of women were convicted in 2022, but says nothing about other crimes related to gender violence, such as rape, fondling, harassment, injuries, or threats —the latter one of the most frequently established in the criminal sections of municipal courts, according to sources familiar with the Cuban judicial system—.
The Court also fails to mention the number of aggressors convicted of prosecutions for attempted attacks, and it is not even clear about the 18 murder convictions it issued; it states that the penalties were issued in 2022, but does not specify whether the femicides occurred in the same year, or in previous ones. Criminal proceedings of this type can be protracted.
The issue of official information on femicide statistics is a common appeal voiced by of Cuban feminist organizations, as transparency on this issue is essential to raise awareness among the population; the visibility of the scourge could become a deterrent for potential aggressors, and encourage women victims of gender violence to see their situation reflected in the media, and report violations.
Being able to access official figures on murders is the only way to determine the real dimension of femicides. Thus, activists continue to demand unbiased information on macho violence in Cuba, but they also demand shelters, specialized police stations, that the State or its institutions compensate the dependents left behind by the victim of a femicide, specialized and early attention for aggressors, a gender- and feminism-conscious approach to public education, and other measures, as occur in most countries with protocols against gender violence.