Dokument #1020218
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
For updated information on Cuba
Independiente y Democrática (CID), its mandate and
membership, please consult Response to Information Request
ZZZ27981.E of 20 October 1997 available at Regional Documentation
Centres.
The following information was provided
during a 9 March 1998 telephone interview with the president of the
Miami office of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, who emigrated
to the United States in 1988 after serving 14 years as a prisoner
of conscience. The Committee was created in 1976 to promote respect
for human rights in Cuba. While its members include former
activists of the Communist Party of Cuba, the Committee is
apolitical and founded on respect for the articles of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. The Committee has about 400 members
throughout Cuba, 117 of whom are prisoners of conscience.
The president stated that CID was founded
in 1980 and that its current Secretary General is Hubert Matos.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
Reference
Cuban Comittee for Human Rights (CCHR),
Miami. 9 March 1998. Telephone interview with the president.
Additional Sources Consulted
Cuba: Dissidents Imprisoned or
Forced Into Exile. 1996. Amnesty International. London:
Amnesty International.
Cuba: Government Crackdown on
Dissent. 1996. Amnesty International. London: Amnesty
International.
Cuba: Improvements Without
Reform.1995. Mariner, Joanne; Tovar Siebentritt, Gretta. Human
Rights Watch. NY: HRW.
Cuba: Renewed Crackdown on Peaceful
Government Critics. 1997. Amnesty International.
London: Amnesty International.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS) Reports. Daily.
Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights
in Latin America (ICCHRLA). Yearly. Annual Reports: General
Concerns and Brief Country Reports.
Latinamerica Press [Lima].
Weekly.
Latin American Regional
Reports: Central America and Caribbean Report
[London].
News From Americas Watch [New
York]. Monthly.
On-line searches of news articles.