Rights
2019 Constitution with a Prime Minister and expanded rights
The Constitution approved by referendum in February 2019 replaced the 1976 text, retaining the Communist Party as the leading force in society and state while restructuring the executive to create a President of the Republic and a separate Prime Minister. It expanded the catalogue of rights, introduced habeas corpus and due-process guarantees in the text, and recognised private property alongside socialist state property. The Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular is the supreme organ, with the Consejo de Estado acting between sessions.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Unitary socialist state; no separate constitutional court
- Deadline — Habeas corpus: heard by the court without delay once presented
- Deadline — Constitutional complaints: channelled through the Asamblea Nacional, which holds interpretive authority
Governing law
- Constitución de la República de Cuba 2019
- Ley 131/2019organisation of central state administration
- Ley 132/2019local organs of people's power
In practice
Cuba has no constitutional court and no judicial power to strike down legislation: the Asamblea Nacional interprets the Constitution and decides on the constitutionality of laws, so constitutional argument is political rather than justiciable in the way it is elsewhere in the region. The 2019 text obliged the legislature to pass a substantial body of implementing law, which is why so many core Cuban statutes date from 2021 onward.