“If the denial of religious freedom in Cuba was ever in question, the Cuban government laid to rest all doubt this weekend by blatantly prohibiting four pastors, leaders of the country’s major religious organizations, from leaving the country to attend the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, D. C. This is exactly the type of human rights violation that we and Ministerial attendees from all over the world are working to expose and to prevent. We urge the Cuban government to allow these religious leaders to participate in this important conversation – in person – and to return to Cuba to work together with officials to improve religious freedom conditions for all of its citizens.”
In its 2019 Annual Report, USCIRF listed Cuba as a Tier 2 country for engaging in or tolerating violations of religious freedom that meet at least one of the elements of the “systematic, ongoing, egregious” standard for designation as “country of particular concern,” or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act.