Parliament green lights consultation on Cuba's Family Code

Havana, December 21 (RHC)-- Deputies to the National Assembly of People's Powe approved on Tuesday Cuba's draft Family Code and its popular consultation, to be held between February 1 and April 30, 2022.

During the Eighth Ordinary session of the Ninth Legislature of the legislative body, the parliamentarians supported the amendments made in the process of specialized analysis, which took place between September and October with professionals and experts from various social sectors and institutions.

In the debate before approval of the popular consultation, Congresswoman Mariela Castro pointed out that this bill promotes respect for full equality and advocates the elimination of discrimination.

She also stated that the Family Code is an expression of the maturity achieved by the Cuban Revolution in the process of building social justice.

This regulation protects a group of people whose realities were not understood at the beginning of the emancipation process initiated in 1959 in the Caribbean island, said Mariela and pointed out that it reinforces the essence of Cuban socialism when it places families at the center of its concerns.

Deputy Miguel Barnet pointed out that the consultation with citizens would be a forceful demonstration of the democratic character of the Revolution. "We support this Code; we defend the bonds of affection because the blood does not always guarantee the peaceful coexistence of families," he remarked.

Legislator Yolanda Ferrer, for her part, highlighted the virtues of the legal norm in the emancipation of women and emphasized the imprint of the late Cuban revolutionary leader Vilma Espín, promoter of the rights of women and children.

Likewise, parliamentarian Ofelia Miriam Ortega, religious leader, highlighted the efforts for the process of discussion of the proposed Law among specialists and experts at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic caused social distancing.

Ortega described this Code as an ethical project of justice and love and insisted that the most important thing for the exercise of the popular consultation should be the values it includes, those which are also, he said, those of the Christian faith.

In similar terms, Congressman Enrique Alemán expressed himself, who recalled Martí's idea that "truth is not afraid of the light".

"No one forged in the cradle of faith will ever be in favor of violence," he stressed and expressed the confidence of Cuba's religious population in the new Code.