UN Authority Figures

UN Commission for Social Development: Cuba

Trade unionists in jail in Cuba.
Source:Cubaverdad.net

Mission of the Commission for Social Development: "...the Commission has been the key UN body in charge of the follow-up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action....Each year since 1995, the Commission has taken up key social development themes as part of its follow-up to the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit. These themes are...Promoting full employment and decent work for all...Improving public sector effectiveness....National and international cooperation for social development...Integration of social and economic policy..." (Commission for Social Development web-site)

Cuba's Term of office: 2011-2015 (re-elected April 28, 2010)

Cuba's Record on Social Development:
"There was no known law prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment ...The law, including related regulations and statutes, severely restricts worker rights by recognizing only the Communist Party-controlled Workers' Central Union of Cuba (CTC) as the paramount trade union confederation. All trade groups must belong to the CTC to operate legally. The law does not provide for the right to strike. The law also does not provide for collective bargaining...The government continued to prevent the formation of independent trade unions in all sectors. The CP chose CTC's leaders...Several small independent labor organizations operated without legal recognition... These organizations continued to be subjected to police harassment and infiltration by government agents and had a limited capacity to represent workers effectively or work on their behalf. The government can determine that a worker is "unfit" to work, resulting in job loss and the denial of job opportunities. Persons were deemed unfit because of their political beliefs, including their refusal to join the official union, and for trying to depart the country illegally. Professionals who expressed interest in emigrating were also penalized...the law does not appear explicitly to prohibit forced labor...There were no known government programs to prevent child labor or remove children from such labor." (US State Department Country Report of Human Rights Practices in Cuba, 2013)

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