CUBA
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28 September 2006
U.N. Official Criticizes Cuba's Human Rights Record
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- A U.N. official has issued a harsh denunciation of Cuba's human rights record, saying the Cuban regime censors and imprisons political dissidents.
In a September 26 statement made at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, the official, Christine Chanet, said she had made several attempts to contact the Cuban authorities concerning Cuba's human rights situation, but that Cuban officials had ignored her entreaties.
Chanet, the personal representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that despite those "difficulties," she had made an “effort to carry out an objective and impartial assessment of the evolution of the situation in Cuba in relation to civil and political rights, in accordance with her mandate."
In her statement, Chanet, a French lawyer, said "it was worth recalling the unprecedented wave of repression that was unleashed in March and April of 2003 in Cuba."
Chanet said the "pretext" for the crackdown was an alleged active role played by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana "vis-à-vis the political opposition" in the Caribbean nation.
During the crackdown, Chanet said, "nearly 80 members of [Cuban] civil society were arrested. They were tried and sentenced to very long prison terms." Chanet said the U.N. High Commissioner's office has "expressed concern over the mental and physical condition of those [still] in detention."
Chanet said she had drawn her conclusions about Cuba's human rights record from a hearing she gave to nongovernmental organizations, and from meetings with representatives of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and academics studying the political and economic situation in Latin America, particularly in Cuba.
Chanet said she had prepared more than 10 recommendations "intended to put an end to the current situation" of repression in Cuba "through restoration of the guaranteed fundamental rights of citizens in the country and international protection of those rights through Cuba's accession” to U.N. treaties related to protecting human rights.
The U.N. Human Rights Council, an international body that addresses human rights concerns, is holding its second session from September 18 to October 6 in Geneva to discuss such issues as internally displaced people, children in armed conflict, violence against women, trafficking in persons, freedom of expression and counterterrorism measures. The council, a successor to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, held its first session June 19-30. The U.N. General Assembly created the council March 15. (See related article.)
The U.S. State Department, which has joined the international community in criticizing Cuba’s human rights record, said in an April 5 report that Cuban officials and their "proxies" increasingly have tormented pro-democracy activists and independent journalists through the use of mob actions known as "acts of repudiation."
The department's report, called Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2005-2006, said accused dissidents, some charged with common crimes, "received sham trials, and those sent to prison were often held in harsh conditions." (See related article.)
The Western Hemisphere section of the report is available on the State Department Web site.
More information on the U.N. Human Rights Council is available on the U.N. Web site.
For more information on U.S. policy, see Cuba and the United States.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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