Oswaldo Paya, Founder, Christian Liberation Movement, Cuba, 1988
Oswaldo Paya (b.1952) is a leading political activist in Cuba. In 1988, he co-founded the Christian Liberation Movement, a non-denominational political group seeking to improve the human rights situation in Cuba. In 1992, Paya announced his intention to run for the Cuban national legislative body. Two days before the deadline to register his candidacy, police officers arrested him at his home and took him to a closed door meeting with members of the Cuban Communist Party. In 1997, Paya spearheaded members of his movement in collecting hundreds of signatures in support of their candidacy to the National Assembly. For the first time, citizens had presented themselves as candidates with popular support and without the governmental backing. The electoral commission did not accept their candidacies.
In 1998, Paya co-founded the Varela Project and gathered more than 10,000 signatures from Cubans to appeal to the government for legislative changes through a national referendum. Legislative proposals included basic civil, political, and economic rights, including the freedom of association, the freedom of expression, the freedom of the press, the right to hold free elections, the right to operate private business, and amnesty for political prisoners. In 2002, Paya presented to the National Assembly over 11,000 signatures supporting the project, and showed another 14,000 signatures in 2004. The National Assembly ignored his request. In 2003, he convened a “National Dialogue” where around 12,000 Cubans discussed their visions for the future. The comments and suggestions were compiled and incorporated into a collective “Program for All Cubans.” He presented this document in 2006, declaring it to be the path to a peaceful and democratic transition.
For his efforts, Paya was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament, the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award from the U.S. National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Columbia University in New York.