Photo / Cubahora

By María Josefina Arce.

Popular consultation and referendum are two mechanisms of participation of Cubans that will endorse the new Family Code, whose 25th version was presented in recent days by the Drafting Commission of the project during a meeting with the highest authorities of the country.

The document, which does not impose models or types of families, but is a reflection of the diversity and plurality of the current Cuban society, and which will replace the one in force since 1975, has been worked on for months.    

This new version contains the final results of the popular consultation, successfully carried out from February 1 to April 30, and received by the Drafting Commission during the last extraordinary session of the Parliament in May.

Workplaces, study centers and communities were the scene of a broad debate. Some 79 THOUSAND meetings were held throughout the country, attended by more than six million people, in a genuine, broad and contributing exercise of popular participation.

Openly and in a frank dialogue with specialists, Cubans expressed their opinions and suggestions to enrich the draft of the new Family Code, which also includes the considerations of experts and academics.

According to the National Electoral Council, the organization, direction and supervision of the popular consultation process counted with the intervention of more than 150,000 people, including electoral authorities, jurists, computer scientists and students, as well as mass organizations.

Likewise, the National Assembly of People's Power made available to the population the document on its website and an e-mail so that they could send their opinions.

The process of popular consultation led to the modification in terms of wording of 47.5% of the provisions contained in the previous version, number 24, while in the case of the articles, now 474, three more were transformed into almost 49%.

Marriage, parental responsibility, adoption, discrimination and violence in the family environment, as well as the rights of children and adolescents were the topics that generated the largest number of proposals.

The draft of the Family Code, modern and inclusive, contains the current trends and contributions of international legal sciences, adapting them, of course, to our social reality.

And one of the most important issues is the result of the experience and contribution of the citizens. As stated by President Miguel Díaz Canel, it is a necessary law, worthy and built by Cubans.