Cuba and the Failure of International Law

Since 1959, Cuba has been under an oppressive and cruel dictatorship that has committed countless atrocities. From mass killings, political assassinations and labor camps, political censorship, the Cuban people have been held at gunpoint by the Castro regime for nearly seventy years now. While the international community has routinely documented the systemic humanitarian abuses that occur in Cuba, their hands remain tied by the very framework that has failed Cuba, international law. 

International law is essential to our global order. Its purpose of assuring global peace and security through setting standards in which states can interact is paramount to modern day politics and global affairs. However, it fails in one critical regard, it only works if countries abide by it. In authoritarian countries like Cuba, international law holds little to no weight at all. The only time it does is when it benefits their cause. In the case of Cuba, the regime often invokes state sovereignty as a prime reason for why foreign intervention in Cuba would be unlawful, even when human rights violations are occurring in the country. These instances of diplomatic support are unsurprising, as this vision regarding state sovereignty in relation to human rights issues proves convenient for any and all authoritarian regimes that bear responsibility for grave human rights violations. This is the dilemma the international community often finds itself in: how to enforce international law in countries that are very clearly breaking it, without violating international law? 

Limitations of International Law

As already stated, the importance of the framework of international law cannot be overstated, it is necessary to maintain global order. However, there is some truth to the idea that it can be considered a “paper-tiger.” International law is not inherently weak, its foundations are critical to how we conduct politics. However, the enforcement of these foundations is where structurally international law falters. 

Furthermore, unfortunately there is no overarching body to effectively and uniformly enforce international law. What we have instead is a reliance on the United Nations system and other international institutions to use the limited power they have to pressure states into following international law. However, the United Nations is an imperfect system. With states often retaining a veto power, in many cases what we have is selective enforcement of international law, depending on the will of states. This selective enforcement often derives from national/particular interests and agendas rather than the UN acting as a supranational institution enacting the general will and universal interest of all. What this creates is a permissive environment that allows authoritarian governments and their allies to avoid repercussions from the international community for their breach of established international norms.They are for example often able to work around the sanctions imposed by the community via trade alliances with states in the system that do not wish to follow the international law framework or the leadership of the UN on such matters. This is precisely what Cuba has done for the past sixty-seven years and counting.

Cuba’s International Law Violations

Cuba has a long list of human rights violations dating back to 1959. In its attempt to consolidate power, the Castro regime has repressed political protests, enforced immense restrictions on freedom of expression, arrested thousands and detained them in inhumane prison conditions. One clear modern-day example is from the protests that occurred in Cuba in 2021. Thousands of Cubans took to the streets to express their frustrations in regards to the economic situation and political environment. However, rather than protecting citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and assembly, the Cuban state has instead opted to detain the protesters, charge them with public disorder or contempt of authority. Human Rights Watch documented a range of abuses committed against protesters and critics of the regime detained in connection with the July 11, 2021 protests, including beatings, solitary confinement, and poor prison conditions.

Furthermore, the Castro regime rules with an iron fist. During his nearly five decades of rule in Cuba, Fidel Castro built a repressive system that punished virtually all forms of dissent, one that suppressed any reporting that portrayed the regime in a negative light and heavily repressed all political opposition in a violent manner. Independent journalism is nearly non-existent in Cuba and internet access is often restricted or shut down entirely to prevent anyone from speaking out against the Castro regime. To get an idea of the lengths that the Cuban regime is willing to go to suppress any and all criticism and political opposition, all one needs to do is look into the Ochoa Corruption case  that occurred in 1989. This is a moment when the Castro regime sacrificed and executed one of their highly decorated and loyal military officials, an official who, while guilty of his crimes, was nonetheless used as the sacrificial lamb in order to keep the Castros protected. 

Lastly, the Castro regime has continually turned away all attempts by the international community to be able to access, investigate, and assess human rights abuses committed by the regime. Since 1991, the United Nations has voted annually to assign a Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cuba, but the Castro regime has refused to cooperate. Since 1990, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been deprived of even the limited access they previously had to the Cuban prisons, where thousands of political prisoners, housed alongside common criminals, suffer countless abuse and deplorable detention conditions. To put it bluntly, the Castro regime has never cared to play by the rules of the game laid out by international law; and international law has allowed this to occur for nearly seventy years. 

What to Do with Cuba

To make it clear, no country has the right to illegally enter another country, forcibly remove their leaders, or decapitate a regime. The sovereignty and agency of a nation and its people must always be at the forefront of international law practice. However, what do we, as an international community, do when the structures we have in place are being repeatedly undermined and ignored by a country for decades? Stronger sanctions are always a viable option for putting pressure on a country, without recurring to intervention. However, as we have seen in this case and many others, those suffering from the sanctions imposed on Cuba are the Cuban people, and not the Castro regime. We have already seen the sanctions fail to drive any real political change. International institutions such as the International Criminal Court could try to hold accountable the leaders of Cuba. This would demonstrate the unity of the international community with regard to condemning and holding accountable the Cuban regime. However, international institutions such as the ICC only work when countries are willing to cooperate. History has shown that Cuba is unlikely to cooperate with any ICC ruling, and given its limited capacity, any enforcement seems impossible. So where does this leave the international community? With the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect. 

Doctrine of Responsibility to Protect

Unanimously adopted by all UN Member States at the 2005 World Summit, this doctrine tackles the very question posed by this article: how to reconcile as an international community the rule of sovereignty, and right of the state not to be interfered with, with the human rights of its citizens, particularly in cases where grave human rights violations are committed by a state against its citizens? The concept behind the doctrine comes from Francis Deng’s idea of “State sovereignty as a responsibility”, captured by the notion that sovereignty entails not only rights and privileges for the state, but also responsibility. Deng sees sovereignty not only as the protection from outside interference, but also as the state’s responsibility to protect its own citizens. However, a residual responsibility also lies with the broader international community of states, and is triggered when a particular state is clearly either unwilling or unable to fulfill its responsibility to protect the human rights of its citizens, or is itself the perpetrator of atrocities against its citizens.

The countless human rights abuses committed over the past seventy years by the Castro regime against its people should call into action the doctrine of responsibility to protect. For decades, generation after generation of Cubans have had to flee the country for their safety, in hope of a better life. All the while the regime has committed countless crimes in order to retain their power. For decades, the Cuban people have been violently silenced, yet, many voices have been able to escape the grip of the regime, yell, and plead for help. The international community has looked on for far too long. Seventy years is long enough to know that what has been tried and put in place has not worked. The status quo must now change. The doctrine of the responsibility to protect should be embraced to bring about true political and social change to Cuba, a country whose people have paid a heavy price for the passivity of the international community for too long.

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Sean Alejandro Rivero is currently a MA Student in Political Science and Public Affairs at Saint Louis University - Madrid, which will accompany his double major in History and International Business in which he achieved during his undergrad. Using his academic background, Sean looks to build an interdisciplinary career with the ultimate goal of working for the U.S government.

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To quote this article, please use the following reference:

Rivero, Sean Alejandro. “Cuba and the Failure of International Law.” Observatory On Contemporary Crises, Observatory On Contemporary Crises, May 2026, www.crisesobservatory.org/post/cuba-and-the-failure-of-international-law.