Twitter / @PresidenciaCuba

By Roberto Morejón

Cuba strengthened the principle of legality inherent to the socialist state when the National Assembly of People's Power recently approved a group of new laws that protect citizens and expand legislation related to security.

In an extraordinary session, the Parliament approved, among other legal bodies, the Law on Personal Data and the new Criminal Code Law, all of which are important to reaffirm the regulatory security of a society like the Cuban one, governed by Law.

The Caribbean nation is expanding the mechanisms inseparable from the absolute rule of law, as has been demonstrated since last year.

Indeed, even in the midst of Covid-19, the Council of State and the parliament implemented a profuse legislative schedule with a view to complement and bring to de facto ways the precepts of the new Constitution, approved by referendum in 2019.    

The new Penal Code, for example, exhibits, according to the experts, an accentuated educational and preventive profile, as advocated by the Magna Carta.

It does not even overlook the ways to socially insert those punished in professions and trades, through the corresponding training.

In this way, they are prepared for life in the future, after the sentence has expired, and the respect for legality is instilled in them. 

When the new Penal Code enters into force, the law in force since 1987, amended several times, will be left behind, but required to adapt to the new times, when the largest of the Antilles is undergoing economic and social transformations and crimes of various peculiarities are committed globally.

The Penal Code also incorporates tools to address transgressions related to the environment, corruption and cybersecurity and those related to discrimination and gender violence.

Both the Penal Code and the other laws that received the approval of the legislature were underpinned by a broad consultation process with experts and other experts, and in some cases with the population.

However, as the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel, points out, Cubans must increase their civic education and legal culture.

The exhortation is timely because a greater knowledge of legality helps people to understand and claim their rights and allows them to abide by the regulations that are indispensable in any society, not by compulsion but by intuition.