Rosa María Payá Acevedo is a Cuban democracy activist and human rights
defender. In 2015, she founded the citizen initiative Cuba Decide, a movement in
favor of changing the political and economic systems in Cuba towards democracy,
through a plebiscite. She is the daughter of the late Oswaldo Payá, the recipient of
the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize and two-time nominee of the Nobel
Peace Prize, who was killed by the regime in 2012. Rosa María is a graduate of
Physics at the University of Havana and of the Global Competitive Leadership
program at Georgetown University. She has been a lecturer and guest of honor at
various universities throughout the United States and Latin America, as well as at
the UN, the Concordia Summit of the Americas, the Freedom Forum, the US
Congress, and multiple parliaments in Europe and the Americas.
In 2020, she was the recipient of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute
(CHLI) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen International Leadership Award for her global advocacy
and leadership. In 2019 she was the winner of the Morris Abram Human Rights
Award granted by UN Watch. She has also been granted the Casa Cuba Award in
Tampa, Florida, and with the Keys of the City of Miami, a city that has established
an annual day in honor of this Cuban activist and that, thanks to the work of Cuba
Decide platform, has declared July 22 as the Day of Victims of Communism in
America. In 2013, she was selected as one of the “25 most powerful women”
according to People en Español magazine.
She is the Honorary President of the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy,
an organization with which she established, in collaboration with the Pan American
Democracy Foundation, the Oswaldo Payá Prize “Libertad y Vida” that, since 2016,
seeks to recognize people and institutions that have made extraordinary
contributions to the defense of democracy.
Her work has made her part of the Global Americans New Generation of Public
Intellectuals initiative in 2018. In recent years, Payá Acevedo has been a
contributor to a number of periodical publications of global relevance, including The
Washington Post and CNN.
*****
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Luncheon and Roundtable Discussion: Cuba and The Rule of Law
Eighth Annual Florida Chapters Conference
Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resort1700 Epcot Resorts Blvd
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
Luncheon and Roundtable Discussion: Cuba and The Rule of Law
Eighth Annual Florida Chapters Conference
Maximo Alvarez, President, Sunshine Gasoline Distributors Kristina Arriaga, Former Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom...
Luncheon and Roundtable Discussion: Cuba and The Rule of Law
Eighth Annual Florida Chapters Conference
Maximo Alvarez, President, Sunshine Gasoline Distributors Kristina Arriaga, Former Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom...