What Cuban Jews and Pope Francis can tell us about the promise of change in Cuba

Despite the shrinking size of their community over the years due to emigration, Cuba’s remaining Jews have done their best to sustain their ritual and community spaces. Reforms in the 1990s allowed outsiders to visit on religious grounds, including visits, cultural exchanges and support from American Jews. As small as the Cuban community is today, it was, and is, sustained in many ways by the support of those abroad. Their story points to the importance of contact across borders—embodied in the recent U.S.-Cuba changes—and how it builds and sustains the values of tolerance and pluralism.

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Preview of UNHRC 30 and predictions on how Latin American countries will vote

The United Nations Human Rights Council opened this week, and on its agenda are the heated topics of Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Syria. The region has historically split in votes on these issues, with a majority, led by Argentina and Brazil, supporting the protection of human rights. On the other side, Cuba and Venezuela have helped to lead the movement to prioritize national sovereignty over the human rights.

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The importance of human rights to sovereignty

In a speech before the start of the new session, the head of the UN Human Rights Commission emphasized the complementarity between human rights and national sovereignty. Was his message intended for any specific countries and their representatives on the Council?

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UNASUR’s epic fail… again

UNASUR’s statement that it would not question the judicial decisions of its member states over the recent sentencing of Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was as predictable as it was troubling. It’s a perfect example of how the region has regressed, with little respect for its troubled past and a warning of things to come.

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Tolerance of LGBT Rights-A Mixed Bag in the Americas

How tolerant are citizens across the Americas of LGBT political rights and marriage equality? While support for political rights is higher than support for the rights of LGBT couples to legally wed, the results track largely with levels of economic development in the region, with two notable exceptions.

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UNASUR action on medicines and the right to health

Can southern regional organizations strengthen the bargaining position of less-developed countries and their societies’ needs in health care? By bringing together South American countries, UNASUR is advancing a broader rights agenda in access to medicines and attention to developing country demands.

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How does the region stack up in women in political power?

Latin American and the Caribbean have made incredible strides in electing women heads of state and in implementing gender quota laws for national legislative elections. But how well represented are women in current national congresses and parliaments? Not as well as you may think.

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Global Campaign against Democratic Norms (NED Event)

Using a number of justifications, including that of regional security or defending state sovereignty, authoritarian regimes are pursuing new antidemocratic norms. To shield themselves from international scrutiny, resurgent authoritarians are seeking to reshape global institutional frameworks that have been integral to the liberal post-Cold War order.

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Voting in UNHRC: Sri Lanka

This week we look at how countries voted in the UNHRC regarding Sri Lanka. The government of then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was accused of engaging in genocide against the civilian Tamil population in its military campaign to end the civil war with the terrorist Tamil Tigers.

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The press freedom crisis in Brazil

Despite Brazil’s image as a regional leader, South America’s largest democracy has become one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. According to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least fourteen journalists have been killed since January 2011. Will President Dilma Rousseff improve conditions in the lead up to next year’s Olympics?

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