The Cuban Committee for Human Rights (CCPDH) was founded on January 28, 1978 in the city of Havana. The initial creators came from the University of Havana, from where they had been expelled in the middle of the 1960s for the alleged charge of "ideological deviation." Many among the founders of the CCPDH had been in prison for political reasons since the 1960s. Some of them, like Eddie Lopez Castillo and Ricardo Bofill, had been condemned to prison for enemy propaganda in the so-called case of the "microfaction", a dissident movement at the end of the 1960s.
The CCPDH declared itself a follower of the teachings of the Soviet dissident and human rights movement, at that time led by Andrei Sakharov and Elena Boner. In addition, it pronounced itself a continuation of the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, with relation to civil disobedience and passive resistance.
The CCPDH, in its own way, expressed that it proposed the opening of a new avenue for the political opposition inside the island. In this order , the Committee put forth the use of reason, of speech, of thought facing the brutal force of the military state sustained in Cuba by Castroism. The CCPDH affirmed that the employment of non-violent, public, and open formulas, would be the common denominator of its strategy of action.
The CCPDH defined itself as a CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT that would denounce political crimes, the atrocities against the right to life, physical integrity, and fundamental public liberties of the citizenry which, in a systematic manner as official policy of the Cuban state, committed by the Castroite authorities.
The CCPDH instituted as its first job the compilation throughout the entire island of the details of the cases of violation of human rights, committed by the repressive forces, the political and administrative authorities of the totalitarian state of a stalinist cut ruling in the island.
Starting from the gathered information of the attacks on the Fundamental Rights and Liberties of the Citizen, the CCPDH began the job of drafting the reports of allegation, in accordance with those established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the pacts and protocols related to the facts in thse materials, which the United Nations establishes as basic principles of behavior of nations with its peoples.
Immediately, the CCPDH made contact with representatives of the government of Costa Rica and, especially with its President, Rodrigo Garazo Odio Esq., to send to the Commission of Human Rights of the United Nations the summaries, and bundles of reports of the cases of violation of human rights by the Cuban Government.
In the same way, via Dr. Martha Frayde, the CCPDH made contact with Amnesty International in London so that together they could present before that organization case reports.
A short time after being founded, the CCPDH together with the Embassy of the Republic of West Germany in the city of Havana, the CCPDH began to labor in accordance with the International Society for Human Rights, of Frankfurt, West Germany. The CCPDH converted itself into the representative in Cuba of the IGFM and subsequently, formed part of the International Secretariat.
In this manner, the Cuban Committee assumed the role of a HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATION that battles for the abolition of the death penalty in Cuba, for the liberation of Cuban political prisoners and struggles for the respect of the right to life and personal liberty, in the face of the politics of state terrorism implanted in the Republic of Cuba, as part of the theory of class struggle, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and of other aberrations dominating the communist model prevailing in the island.
Since its foundation, the CCPDH called for the restauration of the democratic rule of law for the Cuban nation. The CCPDH insisted since its origen that the violations of human rights in Cuba constituted a institutional problem, based not in the circumstancial disregard by agents of the authority or in temporary politics of government, but rather that THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA CAME FROM THE DISSAPPEARANCE OF THE LAST VESTIGES OF THE RULE OF LAW IN THE COUNTRY AND IN THE APPLICATION OF A PERMANENT STATUTE OF 'STATE OF SIEGE' BASED IN AN ORDER THAT RESTS IN THE CONCEPT OF ' CONTINUOUS MARTIAL LAW.'
In 1988 the CCPDH founded the Party for Human Rights of Cuba, as the political wing destined for projects particular to social mobilization for promoting the ideal of Human Rights and challenge the Government of Cuba on this terrain. As a first project, the Part created by the CCPDH gave itself the project of collecting 10,264 signatures of Cuban citizens inside the island, that demanded a plebescite to determine if the project to celebrate free elections, with political forces of the opposition, could count on popular support.
In 1988 the CCPDH worked for a week in Havana with a delegation of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights and delivered a report of nearly 1,000 pages, which contained the analysis of the characterization of the violations of human rights committed by the Cuban government. As a result of this mission of the UNHRC in Cuba, and of the reports of the CCPDH, it was elaborated by the United Nations a document of 400 pages which represents a crushing report against the Castro regime, for having as state policy, the systematic violation of human rights. From then on, the UNHRC has, each year condemned the Cuban government for the same motives.
Halfway through 1990 the CCPDH called from Havana the holding of A NATIONAL MEETING BETWEEN ALL THE PARTS OF THE POLITICAL CONFLICT WHICH DIVIDES CUBANS, so that in that way look for a pacific, negotiated, political solution to the national crisis. At the start of 1988 the CCPDH organized its representation in the exterior, counting in actuality with delegations in:
Spain, with Dr. Martha Prayde
Switzerland, with Orlando Blanco
Italy, with Laura Gonsalez
Federal Republic of Germany, with the IGFM
The CCPDH, in addition, forms part of the International Society for Human Rights, and a member of the International Committee of the Foundation for Human Rights Andrei Sakharov.
The board of directors of the CCPDH in the exterior is found in Miami, and counts among its directors, Sebastian Arcos Bergnes, Oscar Peņa Martinez, Adolfo Rivero Caro, Sebastian Arcos Cazabon and Ricardo Bofill.
The principal board of directors of the CCPDH is in Havana and is headed by Gustavo Arcos Bergnes and Jesus Yanez Pelletier.
The address of the CCPDH in Cuba is Calle H No. 305, Vedado,
Municipio Plaza de la Revolucion, Cuidad de La Habana.
Telephone numbers are 32 5610 and 70 0700.
In Miami the address is 1920 SW 13 ST. Miami, FL. 33145
Telephone (305) 856-8987 fax (305) 643-1037.