 Since March, Cuba
has sent roughly 1,500 medical professionals across
the world to help fight the covid-19 pandemic, joining
approximately
30,000 Cuban health workers already deployed abroad. / Human Rights Watch courtesy photo |
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 Published Friday, July 24, 2020 Cuba
enforces repressive rules
for doctors working abroad, Humans Rights reports By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
The Cuban government imposes draconian rules on doctors, deployed in global medical missions, that violate their fundamental rights, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. According to the human rights defenders, the governments seeking support from Cuban health workers to respond to the covid-19 pandemic should press Cuban authorities to modify applicable regulations and laws that violate the right to privacy, freedom of expression and association, liberty, and movement, among others. Since March, Cuba has sent roughly 1,500 medical professionals across the world to help fight the covid-19 pandemic, joining approximately 30,000 Cuban health workers already deployed abroad. Cuban government regulations provide that workers may be disciplined for being “friends” with people who hold “hostile or contrary views to the Cuban revolution.” Health workers may also face criminal penalties if they “abandon” their jobs. “Cuban doctors deployed to respond to the covid-19 pandemic provide valuable services to many communities, but at the expense of their most basic freedoms,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Governments interested in receiving support from Cuban doctors should press the Cuban government to overhaul this Orwellian system that dictates with whom doctors can live, fall in love, or talk.” According to the Cuban government, over the past nearly 60 years, Cuba has deployed over 400,000 health workers across 164 countries to help tackle short-term crises, natural disasters, and, currently, the covid-19 pandemic. Since March 2020, the Cuban government has sent several contingents of medical personnel to support local healthcare systems in over 20 countries, including several in Latin America. Since its first medical mission to Algeria in 1963, Cuba has crafted repressive norms that regulate the lives of those deployed abroad. The rules severely restrict health workers’ freedom of expression, association, movement, and privacy. Cuba regulates even the most mundane aspects of the lives of Cuban medical personnel on missions, in ways that violate their rights to freedom of association. Under Resolution 168 of 2010, issued by the Ministry of External Commerce and Foreign Investment, it is considered a “disciplinary offense” to have “relationships” with anyone whose “actions are not consistent with the principles and values of the Cuban society,” as well as to be “friends or establish any other links” with Cuban dissidents, people who have “hostile or contrary views to the Cuban revolution,” or who are “promoters of a way of life contrary to the principles that a Cuban collaborator abroad must represent.” Living with “unauthorized” people is also a disciplinary offense. Deployed personnel are required to disclose all “romantic relationships” to their immediate supervisors. Vague provisions in Resolution 168 restrict health workers’ freedom of movement. The resolution makes it an offense to “frequently visit places that damage [the doctor’s] prestige,” as well as to “visit places that, given their characteristics, are prone to public order disturbances.” Health workers also need “authorization” to “participate in public acts of a political or social nature.” Their freedom of expression is also severely limited by broad, vague regulations that are unnecessary and disproportionate to any legitimate government aim. Under Resolution 168, doctors need “authorization and instructions” to “express opinions” to the media about “internal situations in the workplace” or that “put the Cuban collaboration at risk.” It is also an offense to “disseminate or propagate opinions or rumors that undermine the morals or prestige of the group or any of its members.” Sanctions for violating the rules range from withholding wages to recalling the person to Cuba. Under Cuba’s Penal Code, medical staff who “abandon” their jobs may face criminal charges and imprisonment for up to eight years – a punishment that is grossly disproportionate, implicating the workers’ right to liberty. According to Human Rights Watch, they have not been able to determine the extent to which Cuban health workers have broken the rules and law, or whether the Cuban government has enforced criminal or disciplinary sanctions against them. While criminal penalties appear to have been applied rarely, doctors’ statements reviewed by Human Rights Watch suggest that disciplinary sanctions are more common. ---------------------- Should the governments obtaining medical help from Cuban health workers ask for the Cuban government to respect the human rights of their deployed health workers? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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