politicized and unimplemented in some towns. Roma Despite the authorities’ efforts to improve the integration of Roma, Roma continued to face significant barriers to effective access to education, health, housing and employment. UNHCR registered 2,800 Roma without permanent or temporary residence who were at risk of statelessness. Roma experienced difficulties obtaining identity documents which limited their access to public services. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – MEDIA AND JOURNALISTS Persistent threats to freedom of the media and attacks against journalists continued. In March, the government abruptly ended the contracts of nearly 70 editors and journalists at the public broadcaster Croatian Radio Television, in what was perceived as an attempt to influence its editorial policy. Simultaneously, the authorities decided to abolish state subsidies for smaller non-profit media and independent cultural initiatives, further threatening media pluralism. Croatia was downgraded from place 54 to 63 in the World Press Freedom Index. CUBA Republic of Cuba Head of state and government: Raúl Castro Ruz Despite purported political openness, restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association and movement continued. Local civil society and opposition groups reported increased politically motivated detentions and harassment of government critics. BACKGROUND The re-establishment of relations between the USA and Cuba in 2015 led to increased trade and tourism between the two countries in 2016. For example, commercial air services Amnesty International Report 2016/17 from the USA to Cuba resumed after more than 50 years. In March, US President Barack Obama visited Cuba and met President Raúl Castro, the first visit to Cuba by a US President in nearly a century.1 Fidel Castro died in November.2 Millions of tourists, many from the USA and Europe, visited Cuba in 2016, resulting in a significant boom in the tourism industry. Cuban migrants continued to fly to South and Central American countries and to travel north overland in order to reach the USA. Between October 2015 and July 2016, more than 46,000 Cubans entered the USA, slightly more than in 2015 and twice as many as in 2014, according to Pew Research Centre. Throughout the year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed concern about the situation of Cuban migrants attempting to reach the USA. In August, more than 1,000 Cuban migrants were stranded in Colombia close to the border with Panama. The IACHR expressed concern that they did not have access to food and were at risk of being trafficked. In July, 121 Cuban migrants were allegedly deported from Ecuador without proper notification or the opportunity to appeal against the decisions. Cuba had not ratified the ICCPR or the ICESCR, both of which it had signed in February 2008, nor the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Likewise, Cuba had not recognized the competence of the UN Committee against Torture nor the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to receive and consider communications from victims or other states parties. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND ASSOCIATION Despite the re-establishment of relations with the USA in 2015, Cold War rhetoric persisted, with political activists and human rights defenders being publicly described as “anti-Cuban mercenaries”, “antirevolutionary” and “subversive”. 133