103. The Committee considered these three cases together at its meeting held in May 1965, when it submitted the interim conclusions contained in paragraphs 125 to 170 of its 83rd Report, which was approved by the Governing Body at its 162nd Session (May-June 1965). In that report the Committee submitted its definitive conclusions and recommendations concerning two series of allegations: (a) those relating to the imprisonment of the trade union leader Reinaldo González and (b) those relating to the dissolution of employers' organisations. Thus the only allegations consideration of which has remained in suspense are those put forward by I.C.F.T.U concerning the detention of trade union officials; in this connection the Government was asked to supply detailed information (see paragraph 170 of the aforesaid report).
- 103. The Committee considered these three cases together at its meeting held in May 1965, when it submitted the interim conclusions contained in paragraphs 125 to 170 of its 83rd Report, which was approved by the Governing Body at its 162nd Session (May-June 1965). In that report the Committee submitted its definitive conclusions and recommendations concerning two series of allegations: (a) those relating to the imprisonment of the trade union leader Reinaldo González and (b) those relating to the dissolution of employers' organisations. Thus the only allegations consideration of which has remained in suspense are those put forward by I.C.F.T.U concerning the detention of trade union officials; in this connection the Government was asked to supply detailed information (see paragraph 170 of the aforesaid report).
- 104. In a communication dated 5 November 1965, transmitted by the Permanent Delegation of Cuba in Geneva on 13 December 1965, the Government answered that request for information.
- 105. Cuba has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).
A. A. The complainants' allegations
A. A. The complainants' allegations
- Allegations concerning Which the Committee Has Already Submitted Its Definitive Conclusions to the Governing Body
- 106 In the same communication dated 5 November 1965 the Government made certain observations on the two aspects of the case concerning which the Committee had already submitted its definitive conclusions and recommendations. In the case of Mr. Reinaldo González the Government emphasised in general terms the guarantees afforded by judicial procedures in Cuba. These observations have no particular reference to the case in point and do not affect the conclusions previously reached by the Committee. With regard to the allegations concerning the dissolution of employers' organisations the Government puts forward further arguments concerning the irreceivability of the complaint and the substances of the allegations made by the Economic Corporation of Cuba (in exile).
- 107 In so far as the question of receivability of the complaint of the Economic Corporation of Cuba (in exile) is concerned, the Government refers to the enactments by which this organisation and some of its constituent members were dissolved and argues that, by their nature, they were not organisations in the sense of the I.L.O. Constitution or of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87).
- 108 The Committee has already stated in paragraph 148 of its 83rd Report the grounds on which it concluded that the complaint was receivable and does not consider that the latest communication from the Government contains any new information of such a nature as to cause it to modify that conclusion.
- 109 With regard to the substance of the complaint the Government states that it disagrees with the findings contained in paragraph 170 of the Committee's 83rd Report. It presents arguments based on Act No. 647 of 24 November 1959 and Act No. 907 of 1960, the provisions of which were considered by the Committee in paragraphs 151 to 154 of its 83rd Report, and arguments based on the factual situation of the organisations concerned, which add nothing new to the observations analysed in paragraph 150 of that report.
- 110 For these reasons the Committee does not consider that, in the light of the reply now received from the Government, it is called upon to modify the recommendations made in paragraph 170 (2) of its 83rd Report.
- Allegations relating to the Detention of Trade Union Officials
- 111 The complaint is contained in a communication from I.C.F.T.U dated 17 December 1964. The complainant stated that a number of trade union officials had been imprisoned for alleged " counter-revolutionary activities " and requested the Governing Body to set up a fact-finding commission with a view to ascertaining the equity of the judicial procedure applied to the officials in question and the way they were treated in prison." The Government furnished its observations on 6 April 1965.
- 112 When examining the case at its meeting held in May 1965, the Committee, following its invariable practice in such cases, before expressing a view on the complainants' request for a fact-finding commission, recommended the Governing Body to ask the Government to furnish as soon as possible detailed information on the acts for which the persons mentioned in the complaint were convicted and the texts of the judgments handed down in each case, with their grounds.
- 113 In its communication dated 5 November 1965 the Government supplied the information requested with regard to 12 of the 24 persons whose names and activities were listed in the complaint, with the texts of the judgments given against them in public hearings by various Councils of War (revolutionary courts).
- 114 According to this information, Francisco Javier González Fernández was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for the offence of embezzling public funds; Francisco Aguirre Vidaurreta to nine years' deprivation of freedom for an offence against the unity and stability of the nation; José Lauro Blanco Muñiz to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for offences against the State; Gabriel Hernández Custodio, Julio Padrón Rodriguez, Ramón del Bosque Chacón and Angel Hernández Pérez to 12 years' deprivation of freedom for participation in a counter-revolutionary organisation styled " Movement of 30 November " and for offences against the unity and stability of the nation; Basilio Medina Luna to ten years' rigorous imprisonment for the offence of acts against public safety; Henry Martinez López to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for offences against the unity and stability of the nation, attempted homicide, arson and destruction of property; Diego Herrera Rubio to nine years' imprisonment for offences against the unity and stability of the nation; Carlos Rubiera Feito to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for the same offence; José Ulises Diaz González to 12 years' rigorous imprisonment for an offence against the authority of the State. Additional penalties imposed on all of the persons tried were suspension of civil rights, subjection to supervision by the public authorities for a period equal to the main prison sentence and, by virtue of Act No. 664 of 1959, confiscation of all their property.
- 115 The Government states that the provisions regarding the jurisdiction and competence of the judicial institutions which acted in the said cases, the procedural provisions and safeguards and the penal provisions respecting the above-mentioned counter revolutionary offences, are contained in the Constitutional and legal texts communicated to the Committee in connection with the examination of Case No. 283 relating to Mr. Reinaldo González; that in all those cases it had been proved before the competent courts that the persons sentenced had committed the offences of which they were accused and which were punishable under legislation promulgated prior to the offence; and that, finally, the activities in question had nothing in common with genuine trade union activities.
- 116 When examining Case No. 283 in its 83rd Report, the Committee observed from the documents sent by the Government that Mr. González and other persons accused with him were tried by a revolutionary court under the extraordinary procedure laid down in the 1896 Act governing trials in the Republic of Cuba under arms, as a result of which the offences they had been accused of were regarded as "counter-revolutionary". The Committee recalled in this connection that in cases where it had established that an exceptional procedure is being followed it had always reasserted the importance it attached to the observance in such circumstances of all the guarantees afforded by due legal process s The Committee observed, on the basis of the information supplied by the Government in the shape of documents relating to the trial and the fact that the accused were able to employ the services of a number of defence counsel during the trial, that the Government appeared to have provided certain safeguards for the defence, despite the exceptional character of the procedure.
- 117 With regard to the 12 other trade union leaders mentioned in the complaint the Government stated that the data provided by the complainants were insufficient and that it required further information in order to identify the cases. In this connection the Committee observes that the complainants have not sent any additional information within the space of one month granted for that purpose. According to the text of the complaint, as it was communicated to the Government, the 12 trade unionists are Luis Miguel Linsuain, General Secretary of the Gastronomic Federation of Oriente Province, who was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment; Alberto Garcia, General Secretary of the National Medical Federation, sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment; Antonio Dagas, Deputy General Secretary of the Cuban section of the Spanish trade union organisation National Confederation of Labour (C.N.T.), imprisoned in La Cubana fort; Leandro Barreras, member of the Executive Board of the National Federation of Sugar Workers; Norberto Abreu, Secretary of the Federation of Printing and Allied Trades, and Angel Custodio, officer of the National Medical Federation, sentenced as counter-revolutionaries; Sara Carranza, employee at the headquarters of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (C.T.C.), sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment; Ada González Gallo, delegate of the Telephonists' Section of the Telephone Workers' Trade Union of Havana, and Carmen Móndez Linares, C.T.C employee, sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment; Juan Manuel Reines, sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for being an officer of the trade union section of the clandestine movement; Arnoldo Muller Carbone, officer of a Havana trade union, and Jorge Blanco Ferrando, C.T.C employee, sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.
- 118 Lastly, with regard to the request made by the complainants to the Governing Body to set up a fact-finding commission, the Government states that it is a firm, invariable principle not to accept any form of intervention in its internal affairs, and not to accept investigations or inspections within the country regarding events and situations occurring there, only the national authorities and institutions being competent to examine such matters.
- 119 In this connection the Committee recalled that in its First Report it expressed the hope that in future cases the preliminary observations of the governments would not anticipate any request for concurrence in the establishment of a fact-finding commission which the Governing Body might think it appropriate or inappropriate to make after it had had an opportunity of considering the facts of the case and expressing its views.
- 120 In the present case the Government of Cuba has supplied information as requested by the Governing Body, only with regard to the situation of 12 of the 24 trade unionists named in the complaint, stating that it would need more detailed information in order to identify the others. The Committee observes, however, that the complainants have, as indicated in paragraph 117 above, furnished the full names of these other 12 persons, given particulars as to the long prison sentences imposed on them (indicating in one case the place of detention), and indicated the trade union functions which they assumed. The Committee feels that, if further inquiries are made, it should be possible for the Government to identify these cases on the basis of the specific information already communicated to it.
The Committee's recommendations
The Committee's recommendations
- 121. In the circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
- (a) with regard to the 12 trade union officials on whose situation the Government has supplied information, to emphasise to the Government, as it has already done previously, the importance which it attaches to the principle that accused trade unionists, like all other persons, should be entitled to the safeguards of normal judicial procedure;
- (b) to invite the Government to co-operate by furnishing, as soon as possible, detailed information concerning the present situation of the trade union officials in question and of those referred to in paragraphs 117 and 120 above, as well as the texts of the judgments handed down in each instance and their grounds; and meanwhile to postpone consideration of the case;
- (c) to take note of the present interim report of the Committee, it being understood that the Committee will report further to the Governing Body when the information referred to in subparagraph (b) above has been received.
