Vins à Travers Le Monde

Yoani Sanchez is a Cuban blogger, well-known in the world but not so much in her country.

She is the writer of the blog: Generacion Y, where she describes and denounces the daily life in Cuba and Cuban government actions’.

She fights against restrictions to the freedom of expression, association, assembly and movement in Cuba. She is known in the world as the voice of the Cuban population who wants to change their country, their government and the way of being governed.

As her blog is translated in 17 languages, her work is recognized all over the world. She received many awards, demonstrating the recognition of her work. The newspaper the Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The Cuban government don’t see Yoani Sanchez as a “good thing” for their country, they tried many times to stop her or to block her blog. For example, in October 2012, she was arrested to prevent her of writing about Angel Carromero, a Spanish politician who was involved in the death of the Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya.

Despite the control of the freedom of speech, Yoani Sanchez has also been banned from travel out of the country. Indeed, she has been invited to many conferences or awards ceremonies out of Cuba, but the government refused 20 times in four years to give her the “white card” (card which gives you the right to go out of the island). Even when the Brazilian government gave her a visa in January 2012, Cuba used the denial to travel.

In the beginning of the year, the new Cuban reform allows Yoani Sanchez to go out of the island with just a passport and a visa. She arrived in Bahia, Brazil, the 18th of February for 3 months all over the world. Her arrival created a lot of protests and divergences in Brazil.

Sources : - http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR19/001/2012/en/97f8aea1-e8e8-4c27-9ccd-a0aa5789ddd0/amr190012012en.pdf

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoani_S%C3%A1nchez

II. Analysis of the case with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which are violated in this case are the article 13 and 19.

Article 13 :

This article refers to the right of movement. In this case, she tried several times to leave Cuba, but the government has not allowed her. The fact of not providing her the white card is a violation of her right of free circulation out of the territory. This is an abuse of power which was imposed against her will.

Since she had her passport and a visa, she should have been able to leave the island according to this article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 19 :

This article refers to the freedom of expression, opinion and diffusion. In this case and when she was in Cuba, she was threatened on several occasions because of what she said in her blog. Her blog has been suspended many times and she had to find other ways to spread her blog worldwide. She was also arbitrarily arrested several times.

It shows that the Cuban government does not respect freedom of expression within the Cuban

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