U.S. WOMEN AND CUBA COLLABORATION

Women globally are laboring for alternatives to violence, the end of poverty and discrimination, and an emphasis on human development that includes rights to health care, housing, education and reproductive freedoms which provide the material conditions for full social, cultural, and political participation for all. 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.

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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: Women in Statistics 2012). Discrimination on the basis of gender, race, and sexual orientation is outlawed in the Cuban Constitution. The government of Cuba was among 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.

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Our Work: We are building a US-based women's movement that is in dialogue with women of Cuba and the US about:

• Building awareness of specific cruelties to Cuban women and children that result from the US economic blockade

• 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 and detention of the Cuban Five political prisoners in the US, and US political refugees, Nehanda Abiodun and Assata Shakur, in Cuba

• Working for the rights of US citizens to travel freely to Cuba

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Actions of the US Women and Cuba Collaboration aim to empower diverse women in the US and globally, to model and develop just and peaceful international relations, to deepen global women's solidarity, and to use the model of woman-to-woman citizen diplomacy to craft methods to improve the lives of women in both countries and globally.

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.