Cuba and Human Rights
Statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign
Affairs
24 March 2006
IN SPITE OF THE UNFAIR ANTI-CUBAN MANOEUVRE
IMPOSED ON THE CHR, CUBA CONTINUES TO HONOUR ITS COMMITMENT TO COOPERATE WITH
ALL NON-DISCRIMINATORY MECHANISMS IN HUMAN RIGHTS MATTERS
Cuba has a long and dignified history in the sphere of international cooperation
in human rights matters. This history, however, has been suppressed and, what is
worse, distorted by the hegemonic superpower’s propaganda machine.
Through concrete actions, Cuba has always demonstrated an unequivocal
willingness to engage in frank and open dialogue on the basis of mutual respect
on all topics, including that of human rights.
In spite of our principled opposition to the selective, discriminatory and
unfair treatment the United States advocates against Cuba in matters concerning
human rights, Cuba has continued with its traditional cooperation with any
mechanisms in this area that are applied in a universal and non-discriminatory
way.
As an example of this; in 1988, at the invitation of the Cuban government, a
mission headed by the president of the Commission on Human Rights and made up of
five other members of that organisation came to Cuba in order to observe the
human rights situation in our country and to report back to the Commission. This
offer was included in the decision 1988/106, adopted by the Commission on Human
Rights.
The visit took place from 16 to 25 September of that same year and the Cuban
government provided it with every amenity and guarantee to undertake both the
preparatory work and the actual work in our country. The mission’s report
acknowledged the positive attitude and good will shown by Cuban authorities and
clearly stated that there did not exist a human rights situation in Cuba which
would in any way justify a special follow-up process.
The following year (1989) and because of Commission decision 1989/113, Cuba
clearly expressed its willingness to continue cooperating with the United
Nations Secretary General in following up on the recommendations included in the
mission’s report. This process was interrupted, however, by the United States’
decision to manipulate it for the purpose of anti-Cuban propaganda by forcing an
unfair resolution condemning Cuba through the Commission.
The US’ unjust confrontational manoeuvre against and unfounded condemnation of
Cuba met with an honourable and principled response from the Cuban people. Cuba
does not yield to pressure, coercion or blackmail. It will never recognize nor
cooperate with an anti-Cuban manoeuvre like the one led by the United States in
the CHR – clearly illegitimate, illegal and unjust in its conception,
motivations and methods.
This non-negotiable determination notwithstanding, Cuba continued to cooperate
with the Commission on Human Rights and other human rights bodies of the United
Nations system, availing itself of the broad range of opportunities offered by
the numerous mechanisms, bodies and organizations which are non-selective and
adhere to a universal standard in their work.
The invitation extended to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit
Cuba in 1994 was another step taken by Cuba to foster international cooperation
in the sphere of human rights.
Cuba was one of the first countries to receive a High Commissioner, Mr. José
Ayala Lasso, in 1994, only a few months after this position was created in the
UN structure.
As part of the extensive program prepared for his visit, the High Commissioner
met with various government representatives and other actors and visited
numerous centres of interest, where he was able to speak freely with many
Cubans. At the end of his tour through Cuba, the then High Commissioner
emphasized the receptiveness of the Cuban government and its willingness to
follow the main suggestions made during his visit.
In 1995, the Cuban government invited a delegation of international
non-governmental organizations to visit our country. This visit took place from
28 April to 5 May that year. The mission was made up of the organizations France
Libertés, the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, World Doctors
and Human Rights Watch.
While carrying out their work in Cuba, the representatives of these
organizations were given all possible support by the Cuban authorities and
managed to meet all the goals they had set themselves including visits to
several jails and meetings with prisoners in whom they were interested.
In 1998, when the anti-Cuban draft resolution wanted by the United States was
defeated, Cuba extended invitations to the Commission’s special rapporteurs on
the use of mercenaries and violence against women to visit the country, visits
which took place in 1999.
In addition to welcoming missions to the country, Cuba has cooperated
intensively with UN human rights mechanisms in other ways and methods. One way
Cuban authorities have been unfailingly cooperating in this sphere at the
international level has been by systematically providing information to
universal and non-discriminatory CHR mechanisms and to organisations created by
virtue of international human rights treaties.
In keeping with its historical commitment to cooperate with and be an active
member of the Commission, the Cuban government has responded to requests for
information about alleged violations of human rights which have been sent to it
through the different procedures and mechanisms of the Commission and the
mechanism set in place by Social, Economic and Social Council’s resolution 1503.
In 2004, after consulting with the competent authorities, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs sent information regarding twelve alleged cases of human rights
violations to the Commission’s special rapporteurs on freedom of opinion and
expression, torture and health and to the special representative of human rights
defenders.
Cuba has conveyed the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights its
points of view and feedback and has responded to a significant number of
information requests arising from thematic resolutions adopted by the Commission
on Human Rights.
Cuba has honoured its commitment, as few countries have done, to submit regular
reports to organizations established by virtue of international human rights
treaties. Recently, Cuba submitted both its fifth and sixth regular reports to
the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Within the next twelve months, it will also submit its reports to the Committee
on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) and the Committee against Torture (CAT).
Our country has ratified a significant number of international instruments
relating to human rights. Cuba is State party to 15 of the 26 treaties
considered to be the most important in this area, namely:
• Convention On The Rights Of The Child
• Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of
Children and Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.
• Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment.
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
• Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and
Crimes against Humanity,
• International Convention on The Supression and Punishment of the Crime of
Apartheid
• Convention on the Political Rights of Women
• 1926 Slavery Convention and the Protocol Amending the Convention on Slavery
• Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and the
Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, signed in Geneva on 25 September
1926.
• Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the
Exploitation of the Prostitution of others.
Cuba has likewise signed the following instruments:
• Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women.
• Optional Convention to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts.
Cuba has ratified other instruments in the sphere of labour rights related to
the tropic of human rights:
• Convention on Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to
Unionize (N. 87)
• Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (N.98)
• Worker's Representatives Convention (N. 135)
• Labour Relations (Public Service) Convention (N. 151).
• Convention concerning Employment Policy (N. 122).
Cuba reaffirms its commitment to the contents of international covenants on
civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights which it assumed when the
respective texts were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The rights
protected by the aforementioned instruments are fully enshrined for each and
every Cuban citizen in the Constitution and laws of our country. There are large
number of state programs and policies aimed especially at protecting and
promoting the aforementioned rights for Cubans.
Nevertheless, Cuba will not take on new international responsibilities in a
climate of confrontation and politically-motivated manipulation of international
cooperation over human rights matters. Cuba is open to dialogue with all
interested countries on a basis of mutual respect and has stuck to its course of
bilateral cooperation in this area with those whose approach to dialogue is
respectful and serious. In its own region, Latin America, Cuba has had periodic
exchanges on various subjects, including human rights related matters.
Another example of Cuba’s willingness to remain open to international
cooperation in human rights matters while rejecting pressure and intrusions was
the visit of various representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in
Havana to different penitentiaries in Cuba during October 2004. During this
visit, the diplomats were able to appreciate the characteristics of Cuba’s
penitentiary system and how the human rights of all prisoners are protected in
practice, without any kind of discrimination.
The visitors conversed with prisoners and security officers and verified, first
hand, the quality of the facilities and medical personnel who attend to
prisoners and the satisfactory state of health of the latter. They were also
able to appreciate the impact had by new educational, sport and cultural
programmes aimed at improving the process of re-educating and re-inserting all
prisoners into Cuban society.
Cuba will continue to promote the right to food, international solidarity, the
establishment of an equitable and democratic international order in which all of
the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can become a
reality for all human beings and all nations; the right to development for all
nations and individuals; the right of all nations to peace and international
cultural cooperation which respects our rich heritage of diversity.
Cuban representatives will continue to raise the question of the impact of the
foreign debt on Third World countries’ enjoyment of human rights; will oppose
the use of mercenaries as a means to constrain nations from exercising their
right to self-determination and oppose the application of unilateral coercive
measures.
Cuba will support initiatives aimed at protecting all human rights in accordance
with principles of universality, indivisibility and interdependence.
Furthermore, Cuba will defend the efforts of developing countries to promote the
broad spectrum of economic, social and cultural rights.
Cuba will continue to hold an eminent position because of the number and quality
of its contributions to the High Commissioner’s requests for information and
will continue to reply in a systematic way to communications sent through the
Commission’s mechanisms.
The Cuban government will never tolerate any attempt to single it out unfairly
or to trample its people’s right to self-determination; neither will it tolerate
that the sovereign equality of the Cuban state, established by the will of the
Cuban people, be ignored, in flagrant violation of international law.
To sum up, the Cuban government will remain true to its commitment to
multilateralism in international relations, particularly in the field of human
rights and this implies resolutely confronting any maneuver aimed at
manipulation in order to attain hegemonic domination of the international
system.
At the same time, Cuba will continue to be true to the teachings of its national
hero, José Martí, who proclaimed that the “first law of the Republic must be the
reverence paid to man’s full dignity”.