US Cuba Conference Featuring Federation of Cuban Women United Nations Delegation

By Cindy Domingo
Co-chair, Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee

March 2022

WILPF’s Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee and US Women and Cuba Collaboration are participating on two panels with the Federation of Cuban Women’s Delegation to the United Nations 66th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The panels are part of a two-day national conference being held in Manhattan, New York, on March 19 and 20 at The Peoples’ Forum. The Cuba conference is being organized by the US-Cuba-Canada Normalization Conference Committee, which came together last year and represented the largest coalition of groups in North America ever formed to organize and advocate for the lifting of the US blockade against Cuba. Due to COVID-19, the conference will be limited to 150 people in person but will also be available virtually. To register and for more information on the conference and the panels, please visit iucnc.org.

See below for a description of the two panels:

Cuban Women on the Frontline: Advancing Women's Human Rights and Cuba’s Families Code

Saturday, March 19, 2022
11 a.m. – 1 p.m. EST

Cuba is amid a nationwide discussion encompassing about 78,000 meetings in electoral precincts about a new set of laws called the “Families Code.” These revolutionary laws with over 400 articles include the protection of the right of all people to form a family without discrimination; updating the legal definition of family institutions with inclusive rather than strictly heteronormative models and establishes the right to family life, free from violence, and centers the value of love, affection, solidarity, and responsibility.

This panel features the Federation of Cuban Women's (FMC) Delegation to the UN 66 Commission on the Status of Women: Teresa Amarelle, FMC Secretary-General; Osmayda Hernandez Beleno, FMC International Relations; Gretel Marante Rosset, FMC International Relations; and Yamila Gonzales Ferrer, Vice President, National Union of Jurists, a member of the Commission who drafted the Families Code. 

Why Building Solidarity with Cuba’s Women’s Movement is Necessary to Ending the US Blockade!

Featured speakers:

• Jan Strout, US Women and Cuba Collaboration and NOW's Global Feminist National Committee
• Kathryn Trujillo-Hall, Founder of Birthing Project, USA, and Ambassador of Federation of International Gender and Human Rights (FIGHR)
• Moon Vazquez, Lesbian and Allies Project of US Women and Cuba Collaboration
• Closing: Cindy Domingo and Caridad Morales Nussa, US Women and Cuba Collaboration

Gender Equality: Key to Tackling Climate Change for Cuba

Saturday, March 19, 2022
2 p.m.–4 p.m. EST

Moderator: Cindy Domingo, Chair, US Women and Cuba Collaboration and Co-chair, WILPF's Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee

This panel is a virtual Parallel Event of the NGO Commission on the Status (CSW) of Women 66th United Nations Forum and is being held live at this conference.  

The Beijing Platform for Action is the global women and girls' human rights agenda and this year's CSW will emphasize the leadership of women and girls in changing the world especially when it comes to climate change. The Cuban Delegation to the CSW will talk about how under the Cuban revolution Cuban women have achieved gender equity; how women and girls are impacted by climate change in Cuba and what is their role in how Cuba deals with climate change now and in the future?

Featuring the Federation of Cuban Women's (FMC) Delegation to the UN 66 Commission on the Status of Women - Teresa Amarelle, FMC Secretary-General; Osmayda Hernandez Beleno, FMC International Relations; Yamila Gonzales Ferrer, Vice President, National Union of Jurists; and Gretel Marante Rosset, FMC International Relations.

Other featured speakers:

"Cuba's Approach to Climate Crisis and Tarea Vida" 
Helen Yaffe, Professor in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow and respected specialist in Cuban Studies

"Role of Indigenous Women in Protecting our Environment"
Cheryl Wapes'a-Mayes is enrolled in the Assiniboine-Sioux Tribe at Fort Peck Indian Reservation in NE Montana and serves on NOW's National Board

“A Better World is Possible – Yolanda Winds”
Isabella Borgeson, Outside Policy Fellow with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and an award-winning spoken word artist

Closing: Dr. Melissa Barber, Graduate of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) and former Program Coordinator of the IFCO Administered Cuba-US Medical School Scholarship Program.