Cuba and Human Rights
Statement from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs spacer
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”.

SOURCE:
http://www.cuba-solidarity.org/news.asp?ItemID=705