RIGHTS: Cuba Taken to Task in Resolution of UN Commission

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Apr 19 2002 (IPS) - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights approved a resolution in a close vote Friday that calls on Cuba to recognise its citizens’ human, civil and political rights and calls for sending a UN observervation mission to the socialist- run island.

The resolution, proposed by the government of Uruguay, exhorts Cuba to take concrete steps towards acknowledging that there exists an indissoluble link between democracy and fundamental freedoms.

The balloting on the resolution in the 53-member commission resulted in 23 votes in favour, 21 against, and nine abstentions.

The document had the support of 35 countries – not all of which are represented on the commission – including several Latin American nations.

Although the initiative is expressed in moderate terms and does not include any sort of time frame, it is seen in diplomatic circles as “taking the hardline” because it sets the precedent of sending a UN official, a sort of inspector, to evaluate the Caribbean island’s human rights situation.

However, the text does not specify the mandate of the special mission to Cuba.

This year’s motion on Cuba marks a departure from the usual texts proposed before the UN Commission on Human Rights in that it does not explicitly call for censuring the Cuban government for its human rights record.

Cuba had received such condemnations from the commission every year since 1990, with the exception of 1998.

In 2001, the motion to censure the island came from the Czech Republic and was approved with 22 votes in favour, 20 against, 10 abstentions and one absence.

The resolution this year recognises that in the more than 40 years of the Fidel Castro government, the Cuban authorities have made efforts to ensure full social rights for citizens. The socialist government provides free education and health care to the entire population.

The approved motion adds that these advances were achieved “despite an adverse international environment.”

Though the text does not specify the adversities, it is seen as referring to the unilateral economic and commercial embargo the United States has maintained against the island since 1963.

It would befit the Commission on Human Rights to take up the matter of “what creates an unfavourable international environment,” commented Mohammed-Salah Dembri, the Algerian representative before the commission, the UN’s maximum human rights forum.

Guillermo Valles, Uruguay’s assistant foreign minister and motion’s presenter, made only passing reference to the embargo against Cuba when he stated that the document does not defend unilateral sanctions.

Juan Antonio Fernández, director of multilateral affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry and head of the Cuban delegation to the commission’s six-week sessions in Geneva, rejected outright the Uruguayan-sponsored resolution.

Fernández objected to all points of the resolution and said his country would not received a personal representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to work with the Cuban government in applying the approved decision.

According to the Cuban official, the drafting of the resolution was carried out by “hiring a group of Latin American countries (because) it is really an initiative of the United States.”

The Latin American countries would not do something like this “if it were not for the pressure from the United States,” said Fernández.

The resolution on Cuba constitutes the antechamber to a broader project of domination, according to the Cuban diplomat’s interpretation.

He said wondered if the Commission on Human Rights intends that Cuba should adopt different political and economic models, like Argentina’s, which he said condemn the Argentine people to hunger, force them to loot supermarkets, while the government steals their savings from the banks.

Fernández said Uruguay had traded “its principles in exchange for markets for its wool and meat exports,” repeating the accusations of Cuban officials that Montevideo had authored the resolution in order to obtain a special free trade agreement with the United States.

The U.S. representation was left out of the debate on Cuba this year because it lost its seat on the commission in 2001 in the vote to select the member countries representing the “western region”, the bloc in the forum to which it belongs.

However, Kevin E. Moley, U.S. ambassador to the Geneva-based international agencies, closely followed the unfolding of the discussion in the Commission on Human Rights as an observer.

In the crucial moments of the vote, Moley, accompanied by a couple of his assistants, moved to the area of the hall opposite the seats designated to the U.S. delegation.

He stood behind the seats held by the Uruguayan representatives and, with the help of their assistants, exchanged messages with the Montevideo envoys.

Once the vote was over, Moley joined the queue of diplomats and delegates who stepped up to congratulate assistant foreign minister Valles.

The countries voting in favour were Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay.

Those that voted against the resolution were Algeria, Bahrain, Burundi, China, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Indonesia, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, South Africa, Sudan, Togo, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zambia.

Armenia, Brazil, Ecuador, Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Uganda abstained.