CUBAN CIVIC UNIVERSITY (CCU)

I - SUMMARY

During almost half of a century, Cuban society has been unable to establish a democratic culture that may allow a transition towards a democratic state. Not only the Cuban government retains the power through the use of force and different levels of sophisticated repression, but also maintains its control over the people utilizing a wide variety of disinformation and massive indoctrination strategies. Although the above has not achieved the citizens sincere loyalty, it has resulted in most people's evilness, intolerance, hopelessness, and apathy.  

Notwithstanding, during the last few years, the independent civil society has grown in prestige and has gained a more ample space within the population at the expense of the official totalitarism. The Cuban people already sympathizes with the human rights activists, the alternative press agencies, the independent libraries, and other projects of the emerging civil society. 

Before the acute economic-social-political crisis emanating out of the present government's immobility, a tense atmosphere has developed that may result in violence, as a preamble of a civil war brought about by the hate and desperation that has accumulated over decades of dictatorship. 

Notwithstanding the above, there are many citizens wishing to know the real Nation's dynamics; citizens that are conscious of he fact that resorting to violence is not the most appropriate mean in order to claim from the government the rights and guarantees inherent to all human beings which, as we all know, are systematically violated by the existing government. 

In view of the above, we consider that one of the main obstacles towards the Cuban democratization process is precisely the lack of practical knowledge and academic education of the average Cuban, so effectively a non-violent civil fight may be sustained against the existing government. The citizens must possess a diverse ideological knowledge, not only to be able to face the existing government but also to widen and strengthen the gained civil space, getting ready for the successful initiation of the peaceful transition towards democracy and pluralism.   

II - ANTECEDENTS

One of the main problems we are facing with respect to our struggle for the peaceful democratization of Cuba, is the lack of knowledge that most citizens have of their own rights, some formally enunciated in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba of 1976, in addition to those enumerated in the Human Rights Universal Declaration of December 10, 1948, having the Cuban government ratified in numerous occasions, this internationally recognized human rights instrument. 

Not only the Cuban regime's nature bases its totalitarism through control and repression mechanisms, but also resorting to the lack of defense that the common citizen may have, as a result of their inability to face any adverse decision that may also violate their more fundamental rights, due to the ignorance, in the majority of the cases, of the rights vested on them.  

Up to the present time, there is no program or institution in Cuba that may educate the citizens on their rights, and that may help, as well, in the strengthening of the moral-family-ethical values, utilizing the means contemplated under the Cuban government's own laws and those observed internationally.  

It is for this reason that the Cuban Civic University (CCU) is created on July 21, 2003, having as its main objective the implementation of an academic program, aiming at educating Cubans in different academic disciplines such as: Judicial Sciences, Ethics, History, Ecology, Business and Cooperatives Law, Agrarian Law, Social Communications, and Non-violent Civil Struggle.

III - PROJECT'S OBJECTIVES

1. Training of individuals interested in assuming the rights and guarantees defense, before the State's institutions.

2. Farmers and agrarian technicians preparation on their basic rights relating to the Cuban Agrarian Law, Agrarian Reform Law, and International Comparative Law. 

3. Implementation of a program in conjunction with the Latin-American Rural Women Federation (LARWF), qualifying those women involved with respect to their rights and opportunities, as fundamental members of society.

4. Offering of intensive courses, in coordination with the Rural Young People's Union (RYPU), to individuals without a university education, so they are prepared for the performance of a proactive role in the creation and strengthening of civil spaces within society, as well as the establishment of small and medium size enterprises, administration, civil struggle, seminars illustrating the guaranteed opportunities relevant to a democratic system, and how to achieve these goals through pragmatic, pluralist, tolerant, and peaceful means.    

5. Implementation of courses related to Penal Law, Processing Law, Constitutional Law, Ecology and Environment, Agrarian Law, and other topics related to those of the Independent National Agrarian Research Center "Carlos Quintela".

6. Strengthening of civil society's development through academic assistance to all those projects contemplated under this plan. 

7. Promotion of experiences interaction and exchange with Cuban government's academic centers and similar foreign institutions, in order to stimulate dialogue and debates within the academic field, relating to the Cuban reality and the problems affecting same

8. Coordinating with government and independent students' organizations, the legal mechanisms that may demand from the government, the autonomy for all country's high educational centers.

IV - ACTIVITIES

1. Strengthening of the Cuban Civic University (CCU), through the creation of a faculty network throughout the country, that may guarantee the reaching of the project's objectives       

2. Providing, by qualified personnel (from within or outside the island), of intensive post-grade, diplomate courses, conferences, and ad hoc classes. These professors will discuss different topics with small student groups interested, within Cuba, in viable theses striving towards the country's liberation and subsequent joining of the hemisphere's democratic community.

3. Training of the civic organizations' directors that may require same, in order to attain a more effective work.

4. Provide the independent non-governmental organizations, with all related and required academic material, so they may implement their own courses under the supervision of CCU.

5. Keep the international community informed about the project's development, its achievements, and/or difficulties in order to bring the training to all interested parties.

6. Training of all independent professional groups on their related projects' topics.

7. Promotion of interaction between government educational centers and the independent non-government young people's organizations, aiming at the development of mechanisms that will achieve universitarian autonomy. 

V- FUTURE PLANS

1. Development of specialized training programs, encompassing all society's different sectors. 

2. Requesting of support from foreign related institutions, that may allow the exchange of information, student programs, faculty mutual visits, etc.

3. Keeping of documentation and up-to-date studies on the different aspects of the Cuban situation, in order to provide better services to students, the non-governmental organizations, and the governments that may require same.

4. Updating and strengthening of research programs, and public opinion surveying, utilizing combined sampling over a continuously extending and more ample segments.

 5 Organizing the first International Universitarian Congress Against Totalitarism, to be held en Cuba on January 28, 2006, where the Cuban universities' challenges in the XXI century will be discussed.

VI - EVALUATION PLAN

1. The Cuban Civic University (CCU) is overseen by a five member Trustees Council, that will internally supervise each faculty's performance. The Council will designate its President for the term of one year.

2. The Trustees Council will administrate all the assets of the University and will be responsible for the approval of all the individual work contracts with each teaching professor.

3. UCC is structured based on civic faculties, whose directors belong to the Board of Directors, which is subordinated to the Trustees Council, and under the obligation of rendering to this governing body, a monthly report on the academic and administrative performance of each civic faculty.

4. The Board of Directors will conduct annual internal elections in order to elect, among its members, the five members of the Trustees Council, including the delegate that will represent UCC outside the country.

5. As UCC expands its operations within the whole nation, new civic faculties will be created. Their directors will also belong to the Board of Directors, and will be directly subordinated to the Trustees Council.

6. All civic faculties integrating UCC, will enjoy sufficient autonomy in order to adapt their internal regulations to their own working conditions and to their specific fields of specialization. In this manner, for each academic period, their performance will be more effective, after which a report will be presented to the Board of Directors, being this body responsible for summarizing the information contained in such report so it may then be presented to the Trustees Council.