Human Rights Watch submits a statement to the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee for its hearing, “Is it Time to Lift the Ban on Travel to Cuba?” Human Rights Watch believes lifting the travel ban represents an essential step towards ending a US policy that has failed for decades to have any impact whatsoever on improving human rights in Cuba.

Raúl Castro's government has locked up scores of people for exercising their fundamental freedoms and allowed scores more political prisoners arrested during Fidel Castro's rule to languish in detention. Rather than dismantle Cuba's repressive machinery, Raúl Castro has kept it firmly in place and fully active.

On November 6, Cuba’s most prominent blogger, Yoani Sánchez, together with blogger Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo, were abducted by three men. Sánchez and Pardo were forced into an unmarked vehicle, beaten, and threatened by their captors before being released onto the street.

The restoration of constitutional order in Honduras should be accompanied by the immediate repeal of repressive decrees issued by the de facto government, and a full investigation of abuses committed in the aftermath of the coup.

Uruguayan voters' rejection of a move to annul the country's amnesty law could hamper efforts to promote justice over crimes committed during the country's military dictatorship (1973-1985), despite recent important rulings to help bring accountability for that era.

The governments of Venezuela and Colombia should thoroughly and promptly investigate the recent abductions and killings of ten men by an unidentified armed group on the Venezuelan side of the border between the two countries. A separate attack on a longtime Colombian human rights defender in the state of Meta should be fully investigated.

The international community should strongly back the efforts of prosecutors in the human rights unit of the Honduras Attorney General’s office to investigate army and police abuses in Honduras and to overturn a decree by the de facto government that severely restricts freedoms of speech and assembly.

The UN Human Rights Council concluded its session with mixed results. The council adopted helpful resolutions on the human rights situations in Burma, Somalia, Honduras, and Cambodia and unanimously supported resolutions on freedom of expression, migrants' rights, HIV/AIDS, and access to medicines.