CABA on Cuba

The purpose of the CABA on Cuba Committee is to recommend to the CABA Board what CABA’s position and role, if any, would be when a political transition occurs in Cuba. It is CABA’s belief that CABA not only has a right, but the obligation, as a not-for-profit organization whose members are primarily Cuban American lawyers, to promote a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba. The Committee’s Position Statement is reproduced below.

CABA ON CUBA POSITION STATEMENT

The Cuban American Bar Association (“CABA”) was established in Miami in 1974 by a small group of Cuban-born attorneys adapting in a different culture. They depended on each other as resources to function in a foreign legal community. Today, as an organization with over 1300 members, CABA functions similar to other voluntary bar associations, but with some significant differences. CABA engages in a broad range of pro bono activities that include a pro-bono clinic, scholarship programs for law students at various law schools, the defense of human rights in Cuba, and the active promotion of sound judicial practices and judicial sensitivity training. In keeping with its proud tradition of defending and promoting due process and human rights in the United States and Cuba, CABA has adopted this position statement on a transition to democracy in Cuba.

1. We, CABA members, believe that we have a right and an obligation as Cuban Americans to participate and promote a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba. To achieve this goal, we acknowledge and support the following fundamental principles:
2. That the Cuban people are entitled to live and enjoy the rights and duties of a functioning true democracy;
3. That the Cuban people are entitled to enjoy the fundamental human rights encompassed by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
4. That all the Cuban people, including those Cubans who have been forced to leave Cuba for political reasons, and their children, have an inalienable and fundamental right to participate in promoting and establishing of democracy and human rights in Cuba;
5. That the Cuban people are entitled to a free and fair process to draft a new constitution and an explicit Constitutional guarantee of personal rights, to establish of an independent judiciary, to elect legislators, and elect executive officials; and
6. As a starting point for Cuba’s transition to democracy, CABA petitions the immediate release of all prisoners of conscience held in Cuban jails, the dissolution of all internal state security organizations, the establishment of freedom of speech, religion, and association, the recognition of private property rights, and the open and unequivocal commitment of the Cuban government to the promotion and protection of human rights and a democratic process.

For more information on this committee, or to join this committee, please contact the committee chairs directly.