Derechos Humanos / Human Rights

Brussels.– On January 31st, Members of the European Parliament will have the chance to significantly enhance transparency in the European Union. This historic vote, if passed, would introduce an amendment to the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure that would require Parliamentarians in special positions to make their meetings with lobbyists public for the first time ever. An absolute majority of 376 votes is required for the rule to pass. With your help, we can put pressure on MEPs to adopt this critical amendment that would transform how transparency in the EU works!

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Many of us have heard them before: “Urbi et Orbi”, the papal blessings imparted to the city of Rome and the world twice a year, on Easter and Christmas. A message from the Eternal City to the whole world. This year we – supporters of modern direct democracy across the globe – can truly relate to this vibe. At the Rome Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy this year, we started to draft a Magna Charta for an International League of Democracy Cities. A process, which underlines the growing importance of local and regional communities for the future of the planet, when it comes to critical issues like climate change, transportation, health, education – and last but not least, democracy.

70 years ago, on December 10, the then newly established United Nations gathered in Paris to adopt a very important document: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this global charter, all parties committed to a set of fundamental and basic human rights, including – in Art. 21.1. – the fundamental right to indirect and direct democracy. This historic agreement was made on the background of two devastating world wars and the Holocaust, the industrial attempt to extinguish all people of a certain faith. Since then the work to implement the Universal Declaration into every day practice has mainly been led by national leaders gathering in international organizations. But this has changed.

UNPACU PUBLICLY DENOUNCES THE CUBAN REGIME BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Madrid, November 21, 2018.

The Unión Patriótica de Cuba [Patriotic Union of Cuba] (UNPACU), together with a large group of eminent attorneys in international law specializing in proceedings before the International Criminal Court, led by the President of the International Criminal Lawyers Association (BPI-ICB-CAPI), Blas Jesús Imbroda, has launched a process to present in the coming months various accusations of the Cuban regime before said Court.

The axes of accusations will be crimes against humanity that the Court can judge, both for countries parties to the Court (signatories of the Rome Statute) and for those that are not, as is the case of Cuba. In Latin America there are only two countries that are not a party to the Criminal Court, Nicaragua and Cuba, and 28 states parties. At the international level, 121 states are party.

The success of any of the axes of accusation will result in the order of international detention for those members of the regime considered responsible from July 2002 until the date of the last crime subject to denunciation; i.e. at least until November 2018. This international arrest warrant would prevent any of the sentenced, with the certainty of being arrested, from stepping on the grounds of any country party to the International Criminal Court (121 states, 28 of them in the Americas).

Este jueves, 15 de noviembre, el Parlamento Europeo acordó condenar de manera enérgica la detención arbitraria, la persecución y el acoso a periodistas independientes, opositores pacíficos y defensores de los derechos humanos.

La Asociación Pro Libertad de Prensa (APLP), agradece esa Resolución tomada por la Eurocámara. No es un secreto que la solidaridad internacional es vital para detener los abusos cometidos por gobiernos antidemocráticos contra los derechos fundamentales de los ciudadanos.

Nuestra organización hace votos para que los 28 Estados integrantes de la Unión Europea asuman como propio este dictamen de la Eurocámara

Gracias.

Atentamente:
          

José Antonio Fornaris.
Presidente Asociación Pro Libertad de Prensa.

La Habana, 19 de noviembre de 2018.     

[ Comunicado de Prensa del Parlamento Europeo ]