Civil society in Cuba celebrates today the International Human Rights Day (HRD) and reaffirms advances in this field, 76 years after the Universal Declaration of these universal principles.

The capital’s Pabellón Cuba will be the national epicentre for debates by activists from social organisations on the island that promote and protect human rights for all and not as privileges of elites, as in other nations, organisers said.

Despite the tough economic scenario and pressure from the US government and its blockade policy, the country is strengthening its legal framework and guaranteeing the full exercise of these essential principles.

Cuban officials and civil society actors say that the country’s constitution endorses the search for greater social justice for all, and identifies human dignity as a fundamental right and a premise in the construction of its socialist system.

According to the Cuban perspective, human rights are not only limited to the defence of political and civil rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights seen in their universality and comprehensiveness, including the right to development, peace and life, which are continuously and flagrantly denied to other nations.

In Cuba, this is a guarantee of the enjoyment of all the prosperity and social justice that a society can ensure from the institutional point of view, but it is also expressed in practice in the materialisation of all these rights, according to the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

In 2023, the nation was elected member of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the sixth time, which is consistent with the Caribbean country’s performance in this area.

The Caribbean island also has a long history of cooperation with all human rights mechanisms that are applied on a universal and non-discriminatory basis.

In terms of human rights, the country is recognised for its progress in child and adolescent care, the strength of its health system, with universal and free coverage, as well as its contributions as a State Party to 44 international human rights treaties.