Cuban Commission proposes resolution for 2nd Latino Congreso
For
the second straight year hundreds of Latino organizations, leaders
and activists from almost every state in the nation, together with
leaders from Latin America, will converge in Los Angeles, California,
to celebrate the Latino Congreso (www.latinocongreso.org).
Starting Friday, October 5, thousands of persons will gather at the
Sheraton in downtown Los Angeles and will begin five days of arduous
interchange of ideas and discussion.
Workshops
on everything from immigration, the war in Iraq, the Farm Bill,
foreign policy, the environment and every subject that touches the
Latino population in this country will be held during the days. At
the end of the day, during plenary sessions, proposed resolutions
will be debated and voted on, as well as last year’s approved
resolutions will be revisited.
In
its continued effort to reverse the cruel restrictions limiting
family travel to Cuba by the Bush Administration in June 2004, a
delegation of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights will
head for Los Angeles to participate in the Congreso. A workshop to
deal with the family issue and other Cuba related matters will be
held on Saturday morning (October 6) at the Sheraton.
Below
is the proposed resolution offered by the Commission which will be
lobbying for the support of more than 100 national Latino
organizations, and thousands of leaders and activists from throughout
the United States in assuring the elimination of the measures.
PROPOSED
RESOLUTION TO OVERTURN UNCONSTITUTIONAL
FAMILY
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS TO CUBA
Whereas,
from October 5-9,,
2007,
a second National Latino Congreso has been convened in Los Angeles,
California, by the numerous Latino organizations that contribute to
the efforts of improving the quality of life of members of our
communities through out the United States and beyond in order to
engage in an ongoing debate on what strategies and resources (e.g.
Latino electoral influence, governance, and policy assets) would be
more effective in bringing about social justice in our communities;
and,
Whereas,
the U.S. promotes family values and unity and the Supreme Court as
well as circuit courts throughout our nation have consistently
recognized and upheld the right to privacy of individuals to make
decisions regarding their families; marriage, procreation,
child-rearing, sexual conduct, and family relations and associations
are all protected from excessive government intrusion; and,
Whereas,
the regulations implemented by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control in June 2004, limiting family visits
to Cuban Americans to once every three years, with no exceptions not
even for humanitarian cases of emergency or even death, infringes on
the constitutional right of an entire people to visit and associate
with family members in their country of origin; and,
Whereas,
the 2004 regulations define who constitutes family in such narrow
terms that surrogate parents and others could be excluded; and,
Whereas,
the regulations contradict international law which also protects the
right of the family through Article 23(1) of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 10 of the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR), Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR), and Articles 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 17 of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC); and,
Whereas,
regulating family visitations and limiting the definition of family
to 5 categories (parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling)
is a violation of the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the
United States Constitution; and,
Whereas,
OFAC has abused its power in trying to regulate family travel under
the authority granted by the Trading with the Enemy Act, which cannot
possibly be interpreted to cover or apply to family relations; and,
Whereas,
hundreds of thousands of families, both in the U.S. and in Cuba, are
affected by these unconstitutional and legally and morally
unjustifiable regulations, which have devastating effects on the
family unit as a whole and arbitrarily targets individuals who are
not categorized as family as per the narrowly defined language of the
law thereby denying all
visitation
rights to a significant number of Cuban Americans.
Now
therefore, be it resolved,
that our
organizations urge the United States Congress to:
-
Immediately
pass legislation that eliminates restrictions on family travel to
Cuba.
-
Immediately
overturn the regulations by enacting legislation that specifically
holds that such infringements on family associational rights clearly
violate the U.S. Constitution and contravene international law.
-
Revoke
the power of regulating family relations from OFAC under the
authority granted through the Trading with the Enemy Act.
