{"id":250475,"date":"2022-03-17T16:30:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T20:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=250475"},"modified":"2022-03-17T16:30:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T20:30:53","slug":"gauging-the-family-code-in-the-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/gauging-the-family-code-in-the-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Gauging the Family Code in the street"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 7:00 PM in the <\/span>Plaza del Cristo<\/span><\/a>, in Havana. As night falls, life seems to go on normally in this busy place in the historic center of Havana. There are children playing, young people listening to music, people chatting on benches, others passing by or stopping to buy from a street vendor, tourists entering or leaving a private restaurant in the area, couples who do not hide their love in the sight of the whole neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, towards one of the corners of the park, in a renovated secondary school, a group of neighbors is preparing to debate the draft of the new <\/span>Family Code<\/span><\/a>, as part of the popular consultation process that began in February and that will last until next April. Cuban flags, a bust of <\/span>Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed<\/span><\/a> and photos of the late leader Fidel Castro welcome some thirty participants, including those who are to lead the meeting, to which several media outlets have been invited. I ask one of the organizers about the many people who have been left outside and he tells me that this is just one of several meetings scheduled in the community, that everyone will have their chance to attend an assembly and give their opinion on the Code.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the meeting begins and, after a brief speech by a neighborhood leader, two invited specialists take the floor, offering a broad explanation of the legislative proposal and dwelling, particularly, on some points that have been the subject of social controversy, such as parental responsibility on children and adolescents, the concept of marriage in all its breadth, adoption and solidarity gestation, domestic violence, and the rights of older adults, the latter endorsed, moreover, by the fact that the participants comprise not a few neighbors of the so-called \u201cthird age.\u201d In line with what the government has reiterated, the experts maintain that it is an inclusive and advanced code, which does not deprive anyone of rights, but, on the contrary, includes all people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then comes the turn of the attendees\u2019 opinions, but this part lasts less than imagined. Those who speak say they are mostly in favor of the draft code and agree with the assessments of the specialists about its fairness and inclusiveness. Someone makes an exhaustive comment about the elderly and other people in vulnerable situations, in his opinion now more protected by the Code, and ponders the role of those who care for them, even when they are not blood relatives, to whom he considers it necessary to provide greater legal protection. There is also a proposal to modify the title of a chapter and a question about the minimum age for marriage, which the experts clarify. And a little more. In about an hour and a half, the assembly ends, and the neighbors quietly leave the school. Outside, the park looks almost identical to how it did before the meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n