About Us |
Why Women? Why Cuba?
Collaboration members with Fifi Bocourt at La Guinera Community Center
WOMEN IN THE US AND GLOBALLY are laboring for alternatives to violence, the end of poverty and discrimination, and an emphasis on human development that includes the right to health care, housing, education, and reproductive freedoms which provide the material conditions for full social, cultural, and political participation for all. The women of Cuba participate in this global labor, and as a result of the Cuban Revolution the people of Cuba have significantly realized in spite of significant economic challenges a vision of human development that is a global model.
The status of women in Cuba is impressive measured against the international standard of the Beijing Platform for Action from the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women. Women are the majority of Cuba's doctors, teachers, scientists, researchers, and they represent 47% of the labor force (FMC Report Beijing 2000). Discrimination on the basis of gender, race, and sexual orientation is outlawed in the Cuban Constitution. The government of Cuba was the first to ratify the United Nation's Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
The enormous gains in the status of Cuban women as a result of the Cuban Revolution are not well known. Women across the world might benefit from knowledge, understanding, and strategic advice about building a nation that extends the definition of basic human rights to include rights to health care, housing, employment, education and food.
OUR PLAN: Now is the time to build a US-based women's movement that is in dialogue with women of Cuba, and to address in particular:
- Building awareness of specific cruelties to Cuban women and children that result from the US economic blockade and strategizing to deliver reproductive and maternal humanitarian aid for Cuba.
- Supporting US domestic and legislative progress in many sectors to end the embargo and its trade and travel restrictions.
- Educating about how the US blockade of Cuba threatens its sovereignty and independence, while advocating for peaceful and just relations.
- Understanding the role of the US War on Terrorism in the prosecution of the Cuban Five political prisoners in the US and Assata Shakur in Cuba.
- Working for the rights of US citizens to travel to Cuba, and for the revival of people-to-people exchanges between Cuba and the US.
US Women and Cuba Collaboration actions aim to empower diverse women in the US and other parts of the world, to participate in and develop just and peaceful international relations, to deepen global women's solidarity, and to use a woman-to-woman citizen diplomacy model to craft methods to improve the lives of women in both countries.
The ultimate goal of our strategic collaboration is to normalize relations between our sovereign nations and to build an inclusive and progressive global women's movement. Our current campaigns educate and organize women in the US and trans-nationally: 1) Promoting the Right to Travel; 2) Educating About the Reality of Cuban Women's Lives; 3) Advancing Global Feminisms.
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to build a strong US women's movement dedicated to ending the US government blockade of Cuba and to creating mutually beneficial US–Cuba relations; our work is rooted in the concept of universal human rights, racial and economic justice, and women's rights.
Campaigns
- Right to Travel: Help us work to end all travel bans on US citizens for travel to Cuba, and on Cubans who cannot secure US visas to visit the US.
- Reality of Cuban Women's Lives: Learn about impressive public policy advances of Cuban women, and also about the harsh impacts of the US blockade on the lives of Cuban women and children.
- Advancing Global Feminisms: Join us as we learn how to share the lessons of global women's networks to advance the status of women globally and to build a strong US women's movement.
Contact Us
Join the US Women & Cuba Collaboration. Contact us to be added to our email list for notices of news, action items, and upcoming delegation opportunities (not more than one email a month).
Victoria Kill
info@womenandcuba.org
Project Co-Chairs:
Cindy Domingo
yoson66@hotmail.com
Jan Strout
peacewomen4ever@yahoo.com
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