handed a three-year sentence in March for publicly criticizing Fidel Castro.3 A family of four human rights defenders were detained in Holguín, southeast Cuba, for allegedly leaving their house during the period of state mourning for Fidel Castro in 2016. The three siblings were given one-year prison sentences for “defamation of institutions, organizations and heroes and martyrs of the Republic of Cuba” and “public disorder”.4 Their mother was sentenced to house arrest. On 2 April, after a prolonged hunger strike, the three siblings were freed under conditional release, but they continued to be intimidated by the authorities. Jorge Cervantes, a member of the political opposition group Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), was detained for approximately three months between May and August. Weeks before, UNPACU had published on its YouTube channel a video called “Horrors in jail” in which Jorge Cervantes interviewed a man who had allegedly been ill-treated in a Cuban prison, and a series of videos which alleged corruption by public officials.5 The authorities continued to present trumped-up charges for common crimes as a way to harass and detain political opponents, meaning there were likely many more prisoners of conscience than documented. WORKERS’ RIGHTS The state continued to use its control – as the biggest employer in the country, and as a regulator of the private sector – as a way to stifle even the most subtle criticism of the government.6 Politically motivated and discriminatory dismissals continued to be used against those who criticized the government’s economic or political model. Workers pushed out of employment in the public sector for freely expressing themselves were often further harassed after entering the emerging but highly regulated selfemployment sector. The de facto prohibition on independent trade unions limited workers’ ability to independently organize and appeal against discriminatory dismissals. The executive’s strong influence over the judiciary and Amnesty International Report 2017/18 lawyers limited effective recourse through the courts. RIGHT TO EDUCATION Undue restrictions in access to information and freedom of expression online followed decades of offline censorship, undermining Cuba’s advances in education. Between May and mid-June, the Open Observatory of Network Interference conducted testing on a sample of websites in Cuba and found 41 sites blocked by the authorities. All the blocked sites expressed criticism of the Cuban government, reported on human rights issues, or discussed techniques to bypass censorship. While the government continued to expand access to the internet, it prioritized access to the highly censored, government-curated national intranet. Access to the global internet remained prohibitively expensive for most Cubans.7 INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY In April, the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons conducted a visit to Cuba, and in July the country received the UN independent expert on human rights and international solidarity. Most independent human rights organizations continued to be denied access to the country and to its prisons. Cuba remained the only country in the Americas region to deny access to Amnesty International. 1. Cuban graffiti artist released (AMR 25/5545/2017) 2. Urban artist at risk in Cuba (AMR 25/7000/2017) 3. Cuba: Activist sentenced to three years in jail after criticizing Fidel Castro (News story, 21 March) 4. Cuba: Prisoners of conscience on hunger strike (AMR 25/6001/2017) 5. Cuba: Opposition activist in maximum security prison (AMR 25/6671/2017) 6. Cuba: “Your mind is in prison” – Cuba’s web of control over free expression and its chilling effect on everyday life (AMR 25/7299/2017) 7. Cuba’s internet paradox: How controlled and censored internet risks Cuba’s achievements in education (News story, 29 August) 141