Cuba and human rights
The Cuban Constitution of 1976 sets out all the rights recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and includes the following:
The obligation of the state to assure the economic and social well-being of the collective.
Positive social and economic rights: the right to work, right to social security, free health care and free education. The right to work is balanced by a duty to work.
Equality of rights and duties and the prohibition of discrimination.
Individual liberties, for example freedom of speech in keeping with the objectives of a socialist society.
Capitalist democracy is seen as a democracy for a majority of exploiters and as a form of oppression of the majority.
US and UK jurisprudence puts individual autonomy and property rights above group rights and collective economic and social well-being.
Socialist legality is concerned with collective well-being based on egalitarian values. It imposes limitations of individual liberties for the collective good. Political expression is restricted where it conflicts with state policy. The Cuban Communist party is the only lawful political party.
All efforts to organise internal dissent have been linked to US efforts to destabilise the government.
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