Cuban Parliament approves draft Family Code, people to discuss it in 2022

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 22 (ACN) The National Assembly of People's Power approved the draft Law on the Code of Families to be submitted to popular consultation from February 1 to April 30, 2022.

In the presence of president Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Cuban lawmakers endorsed this text, the result of intense work and contributions from jurists, institutions and agencies, deputies and delegates and the Cuban people.

Oscar Silvera Martínez, Minister of Justice, when presenting the draft, pointed out that it is an expression of the role that the State attributes to the family and of the need to adapt the current legislation to the Cuban reality.

It is consistent with the Constitution of the Republic, optimizes principles, enshrines values and is inclusive and respectful of international treaties, he said.

In addition, it strengthens family responsibility; updates and perfects family legal institutions; promotes gender equality; safeguards the best interests of children and adolescents; protects youth, the elderly and people with disabilities.

Silvera Martinez added that the bill protects all expressions of family diversity and the right of each person to create a family in coherence with the Magna Carta and its principles of equality, non-discrimination and human dignity.

It also strengthens family responsibility from the emotional, educational, formative and economic point of view in the care of its members; the role of the courts in family disputes; the competencies of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the presence of these matters in the notarial field and the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice in the defense and protection of persons in situations of vulnerability in the family sphere.

The Minister expressed that this proposal does not establish a model of families but recognizes the plurality of families, constitutes a democratic conquest, the result of the participation of all in the construction of a modern, inclusive and respectful law.