Civil Society, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

RIGHTS-CUBA: Havana Signs Treaties – With Reservations

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Feb 29 2008 (IPS) - The United States’ hostile policy towards Cuba will remain a hurdle to recognition and respect for certain rights enshrined in the first two international treaties signed by the government of Raúl Castro.

The two pacts signed Thursday were the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The latter may be the focus of the government’s main reservations.

“The economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America and its policy of hostility and aggression towards Cuba constitute the most serious obstacle to the Cuban people’s enjoyment of the rights outlined in these covenants,” Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said in a statement after signing the conventions Thursday.

The communiqué, read out by Pérez Roque at United Nations headquarters and published in Cuba Friday, adds that “with respect to the reach and implementation of several aspects of these international instruments, Cuba will register the reservations or interpretative statements that it considers pertinent.”

Although the minister did not clarify what those reservations will be, it could be surmised that they involve certain rights in the political sphere that the Cuban government has denied to political opposition groups on the argument that they are at the service of the government of a foreign country, the United States.

The reservations could refer, for example, to the right to freedom of expression that includes the “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,” as stipulated by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However, the treaty also recognises that this right may “be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; (b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.” The situation is similar in the case of the right “to form and join trade unions,” with regard to which the Covenant states that “No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those which are prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”

In addition, it says, “This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on members of the armed forces and of the police in their exercise of this right.”

The states party assume the obligation to respect and ensure the rights recognised in the covenants, both of which went into effect in 1976, for all individuals within their territory or subject to their jurisdiction, to which end they must “take the necessary steps…to adopt such legislative or other measures as may be necessary to give effect” to these rights.

Above and beyond the possible reservations that may be expressed, the Cuban foreign minister said that since the 1959 Cuban revolution, Cuba has “systematically” guaranteed “rights protected by both instruments.”

These include the right to health care, food, education, employment and social security, as well as the protection of children and adolescents from exploitation and public access to culture and scientific advancements.

The conventions were signed as a result of a “sovereign decision” by the Cuban government, which “has never and will never act under pressure,” Pérez Roque said at a press conference in New York.

That position was also expressed by Raúl Castro in his first speech after becoming president on Feb. 24. The Revolution “has never yielded an inch to pressure nor has it allowed itself to be influenced by either large or small pressures,” said Castro.

Cuba began to open up to dialogue on questions of human rights last year when it established a new mechanism for discussions on the issue with Spain, accepted a visit by U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Jean Ziegler, and announced on Dec. 10 that it would sign the two international covenants.

Ziegler was only invited to Cuba after the U.N. Human Rights Council terminated the mandate of the personal representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Cuba, Christine Chanet, who was never allowed to visit Cuba because Havana saw her designation as forming part of U.S. attempts at manipulation.

The last such visit was the 1999 trip to Cuba by Radhika Coomaraswamy, U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women.

When he announced in December that the two international covenants would be signed, Pérez Roque also said the Cuban government had decided to broaden its cooperation with the United Nations in the field of human rights in response to the Human Rights Council’s decision to put an end to the special monitoring of Cuba.

In the absence of manipulation by the United States, which for years successfully pushed for approval of a resolution censuring Cuba for human rights abuses in the now defunct U.N. Human Rights Commission, this country will now submit itself to the mechanisms of the U.N. Human Rights Council “in equal conditions” with every other nation, said the foreign minister.

Local analysts said it was a good sign that Cuba signed the two international human rights treaties less than a week after Raúl Castro succeeded his ailing brother Fidel as president.

The decision was received by dissident groups, however, with scepticism.

“Over and above the signing of the covenants, we hope the government will honour them in the letter and in the spirit, which would make it the first to benefit as a result at the international level,” said Elizardo Sánchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesman for the moderate dissident coalition Arco Progresista, said the signing of the two treaties should result in the end of harassment of dissident groups. “It’s important that the Cuban government respond with changes within the country,” he told IPS.

But Cuesta Morúa sees U.S. policy towards Cuba as a “shadow” that hangs over the dissident groups. “As always, the United States is the chief external obstacle to change in Cuba,” he said last year, after Washington’s Oct. 24 announcement of the development of a multi-billion dollar fund to support a “political transition” in Cuba.

“Now is the time to support the democratic movements growing on the island,” U.S. President George W. Bush said on that occasion. “Now is the time for the world to put aside its differences and prepare for Cuba’s transition to a future of freedom and progress and promise.”

Four months later, Bush said that nothing would change in his government’s policy towards Cuba. Raúl Castro represents “nothing more than an extension of what his brother did,” the U.S. leader said Thursday.

Havana, for its part, stands firm by its position to refuse to accept conditions in exchange for a lifting of the nearly five-decade U.S. trade embargo, such as certain internal changes, arguing that it would be interference in Cuba’s sovereign affairs and a violation of the right of each country to choose its own political system.