International Mechanism Submissions

Cuba has observed a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since its last recorded execution in 2003 and, according to the most recent reports,no one is currently under sentence of death. Legislation still authorizes capital punishment, which can be applied for common crimes and broad categories of State-security-related offences. Cuba is defined as a retentionist country in that it retains the death penalty for ordinary crimes. Cuba prohibits the death penalty for persons under twenty years of age and for women who committed the alleged offense while pregnant or who are pregnant at the time of sentencing. Cuba has implemented a new Penal Code which increases the number of crimes for which a person can be sentenced to death. Most capital crimes in the new Penal Code are related to state security.