John Suarez, Cuban Democratic Directorate Part I http://www.cl.gs/93XnaB Part II http://www.cl.gs/QvSaSa

Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy Part I http://www.cl.gs/Ryj4ns Part II http://www.cl.gs/8VnZSn SPANISH ORIGINAL http://cl.gs/2AaZ9d

José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Former Cuban Prisoner of Conscience Part I http://www.cl.gs/bG9DQV Part II http://www.cl.gs/bgMptJ

Geneva. March 9, 2010. Cuban Democratic Directorate. Attendees at the 2^nd Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance, and Democracy were met with the sight of an empty chair at the start of a panel entitled “Authoriarianism and Dissent: 21^st Century Horizons.” The seat was reserved for Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina, a former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience and noted Cuban democracy activist who sent a powerful video message to the Summit after being blocked from attending in person by the Castro regime.

“I will continue to work to promote the Cuban people's human rights, despite the death threat made against me by State Security in Guantánamo on January 6 of this year for engaging in a civic protest on the streets of Cuba against the impunity” enjoyed by human rights violators in Cuba, stated Rodríguez Lobaina, founder of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy in the prerecorded message.

The Geneva Summit, sponsored by a coalition of 25 NGOs, brought together 800 victims, dissidents, activists, and diplomats from 67 Countries to urge action against rights abusers, boost democracy dissidents worldwide, and issue a call for internet freedom. Among the countries spotlighted during the Summit were Azerbaijan, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Tibet, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Jose Gabriel Ramón Castillo, also a former Amnesty International Cuban prisoner of conscience, addressed the Summit to call for solidarity for the democracy movement in Cuba.

“In Cuba, there is a dissident movement…These dissidents are struggling, demanding, and acting in a peaceful manner to bring about change in Cuba. They are expecting our support,” stated Ramón Castillo, who was imprisoned along with 74 other democracy activists and independent journalists in the 2003 “Black Spring” crackdown by the Castro regime.

John Suárez, International Secretary of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, delivered the opening statement of the summit on behalf of the NGO coalition of co-sponsors which included such groups as Freedom House, Ibuka, UN Watch, and Burmese, Tibetan and Zimbabwean organizations, with support from the Canton of Geneva.

“In Cuba, the communist regime continues to systematically deny Cubans their human rights,” stated Suárez as he offered an overview of critical rights situations there and in countries like Iran, China, North Korea, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Burma, and Venezuela.

“New opportunities exist, and human rights defenders need to brainstorm and collaborate to improve activism and to offer a counterbalance to the collaboration and coordination of repressive regimes and movements. The international stage can be used to put a spotlight on the world’s worst abusers… Let us make sure that the victims of human rights violations receive the solidarity of people of goodwill and that the abusers be given cause to be shamed by their actions and to change their ways,” concluded Suarez.

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