All British ambassadors work with human rights defenders. As the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has said: “Human rights are part of our national DNA and will be woven into the decision making processes of our foreign policy”. I have written previously about our work with people and organisations trying to prevent the trade in human trafficking. As Embassy to the Holy See, we are also in regular contact with Catholic organisations working to ensure that suffering human beings can live with dignity, such as the Jesuit Refugee Service currently bringing support and assistance to refugees in Syria, or to prevent conflict, such as the Sant’Egidio community.
It is especially humbling to encounter those who suffer because of their human rights advocacy, but are prepared to sacrifice their own ease and well-being because they know that what they are doing is right. One such was Oswaldo Paya, whom I had the honour to know when I served in our Embassy in Cuba from 2003-6. Paya was a dedicated husband and father, a Catholic, and the best known of Cuba’s so-called “dissidents”, people who stand up to say in public that the limits on civil rights and political freedoms in Cuba are unacceptable. He was criticised by some exiles in Miami, and persecuted by the government in Cuba, for being what Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne has called: “unwavering in his commitment to dialogue and reconciliation”, and “a determined advocate of peaceful change”.
Oswaldo Paya was killed on 22 July in a car accident in Cuba. Pope Benedict XVI, in a message read out at Paya’s funeral in Havana, called his death “an irreparable loss”. Paya, a simple family man, gave people in Cuba hope. He did not expect to see Cuba change in his lifetime. But he was working for his children and grandchildren, and future generations of Cubans. He was an inspiring individual, ready to accept hardship for what he believed. Oswaldo, a good friend, rest in peace.