Human rights group Democratic Spaces and Cuba Decide promoters, with the legal assistance of David Matas and Sarah Teich, filed a joint request for the imposition of targeted sanctions on twelve Cuban officials and entities responsible for gross violations of human rights in Cuba.

Evidence was shared that the named individuals and entities, which included President Miguel Diaz-Canel, were responsible for the gross violations of human rights committed against pro-democracy protesters on and after July 11, 2021.

It was on July 11, 2021 that the people of Cuba came together in one of the largest peaceful, pro-democracy protests in recent Cuban history. The Cuban government responded to those protests with brutal repression and censorship. According to Human Rights Watch, the Cuban government acted with “brutal, systematic repression,” and the crackdown included mass arbitrary detentions, as well as “beatings, and other cases of ill-treatment that in some cases constitute torture.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly condemned Havana’s violent crackdown in 2021, and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s office has reiterated Canada’s concerns over the repression and arbitrary detentions of protesters, journalists, and activists in Cuba, as well as the harsh sentencing of protesters. However, Canada has not yet imposed targeted sanctions on those responsible.

The joint request for targeted sanctions against gross human rights violators in Cuba was covered by The Globe and Mail; the full article can be read here.