“The only instance of accountability my family has received is precisely the Commission’s report,” she said in an interview with EFE.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Eduard Ribas and Admetlla, Washington, 11 April 2025 — The United States candidate for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Rosa María Payá, daughter of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, proposes to improve the functioning of the body based on her own experience as a victim of human rights violations.
“I’ve been a victim. I have seen my family suffer and die, my compatriots and friends live in anxiety just because they do not have basic rights,” says the 36-year-old activist.
Payá brought to the IACHR the case of her father’s death in a suspicious car accident in 2012 in Cuba, for which the agency held the Cuban state responsible after ten years of trial.
“I have seen my family suffer and die, my compatriots and friends live in anxiety just because they don’t have basic rights”
“The only instance of accountability that my family has obtained is precisely the Commission’s report,” she says. ” I want the same and something better for every citizen of the Americas who has seen their rights repressed,” says Payá, who adds that she has been able to know first-hand both the successes and failures of the Commission.
Rosa María Payá was nominated by the Trump administration as a member of the IACHR and received the assignment from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban origin.
Founder of the initiative Cuba Decide, which advocates for the democratization of the Island, Payá says that she has spent her “adult life dedicated to the defense of human rights” and has worked with civil society organizations from Canada to Chile.
That experience, she says, has allowed her to clearly identify the challenges faced by victims as well as the limits of the current system.
Payá says that the IACHR can and should be more accessible, faster and more relevant for the victims
She says that the IACHR can and should be more accessible, faster and more relevant for the victims. It is an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), responsible for ensuring the protection of human rights in the Americas.
“I think that I can contribute a lot to the work of the commission by bringing those voices, the voices of defenders and victims, closer to the commission,” she says.
Payá identifies four countries with particularly serious human rights crises in the region: Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Although the latter three countries do not participate in the inter-American system, Payá emphasizes that the IACHR retains jurisdiction over their cases and that the Commission must continue to make these violations visible through its recommendations.
On the situation in her native Cuba, she denounces the serious energy, health and food crisis, “while the Cuban military keeps millions of euros in foreign banks.”
As a Cuban and an American citizen, she cannot participate in the decisions of the Commission on the U.S. and Cuba
As a Cuban and an American citizen, she cannot participate in the decisions of the Commission on the U.S. and Cuba but says that she will “of course” continue to fight for the “recovery of democracy” on the Island.
“I think it is clear that the way out of the crisis is through the dictatorship’s exit, and the member states should support this direction,” she says .
Questioned about the tightening of Trump’s migration policies and the sending of migrants, accused of being criminals, to the mega prison of El Salvador, Payá replies that each member state is sovereign in defining its own rules.
However, she maintains that the IACHR’s role is to ensure respect for human rights in all contexts.
“I am also a migrant in this country (the U.S.), and my role in the Commission will be to ensure that the human rights of migrants are respected,” she affirms.
The OAS General Assembly in Antigua and Barbuda will elect the three vacant IACHR seats from among seven candidates submitted by member states.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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