Cuba demands justice at UN Commission on Human Rights

Following are some of the points he discussed from an accompanying statement issued by the Cuban Embassy:

The social and economic transformations undertaken by the Cuban Revolution resulted in a strategy for development that harmonizes economic growth with social policies, which in the matter of employment has been aimed, from the very beginning, at securing a remunerated job to every citizen fit to work, thus eliminating the high unemployment and underemployment rates inherited from the neocolonial regime that preceded the Revolution.

From the outset of the economic recovery in Cuba, and especially during the Battle of Ideas waged by the Cuban people, the employment policy has been fortified, as confirmed by its positive impact on the quality of life of the Cubans.

In Cuba, all the citizens have a right to permanent health care and protection. The State guarantees this right by providing free medical care and hospital services…

Cuba denounces the campaign promoted by a group of actors in the framework of ILO intended to force an unjust condemnation of Cuba by international institutions and mechanisms, in spite of the accomplishments and guarantees the Cuban people enjoy in the sphere of labor, social security and social assistance, in spite of Cuba’s zealous compliance with the International Labor Agreements it has signed, and in spite of Cuba’s fulfillment of its obligations with the Organization.

Cuba requests support against the blunt maneuvers intended to include it in the list of countries that will be accountable to the Committee on the Application of International Labor Standards at the 93rd International Labor Conference to be held next June.

The Cuban people demand justice and respect for truth in the work of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

The 61st period of sessions of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will take place in Geneva from March 14 to April 22, 2005.

The works of the CHR have been impaired by political manipulation. A small group of powerful countries -- most especially the world hegemonic superpower -- have turned the Commission into a sort of Court of Inquisition against countries from the South and against all those who oppose their strategic plans for political and ideological domination.

The Commission remains hand-tied as a result of the pressure some Northern governments exert on its members. For example, this body has not been able to review -- nor even to debate -- the gross human rights violations resulting from the behavior of U.S. authorities in the way they mistreat prisoners either in the territory they illegally occupy on Guantanamo Bay or in Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq.

Nevertheless, more and more countries show their disagreement with this unsustainable state of affairs and use their vote to express their rejection towards maneuvers aimed at unjustly censuring those governments which oppose the so-called New World Order they wish to impose on us. The outcome of the votes on several draft resolutions intended to condemn countries from the South in the Third Commission at the 59th session of the United Nations General Assembly confirm what appears to firm up as a distinct tendency in the intergovernmental human rights bodies.

Cuba has supported the just causes and claims of the African, Asian and Latin American peoples and has established with them a mutually advantageous form of cooperation, which becomes stronger every year. Thousands of Cubans have given their lives, their sweat and their talent in the struggle against colonialism and the aggressive forces of the opprobrious apartheid regime and in the battle against illiteracy, diseases and AIDS.

With its resolve and unwavering vote, Cuba has always rejected the maneuvers of the industrialized powers whose intention is to condemn and stigmatize states from the South in the works of the Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly. Cuba reaffirms this unconditional and unwavering support against any new attempt to unjustly condemn any sisterly country in the up-coming 61st Session of the Commission.

Cuba is confident that the developing countries, and others truly committed to the cause of human rights, will be able to continue playing a leading role in opposing the actions of those who try to turn the HRC into a sort of Court of the Inquisition against states from the South. To this end, Cuba will close ranks with the developing countries in the consolidation of a common position that rejects any attempt to apply an equally unfair and discriminatory treatment to other sisterly countries from the South.

The vote of rejection cast by a growing number of developing countries -- including some of the poorest in the world -- against draft resolutions aimed at unfairly censuring Cuba and other countries from the South, confirms that determination in the face of pressure from some Northern powers is not only fair and necessary but is also viable.

The Northern powers have increasingly used manipulation as a tool of oppression against those who dissent and refuse to abide by their imperial dictates.

The resolution against Cuba in the Commission has nothing to do with human rights, because the latter are of little concern to the United States, which is today responsible for the most serious violations of international law, human rights and international humanitarian law. This is the Government, which systematically resorts to deceit as a state policy and seeks to crush the sovereign resistance of the Cuban people through hostility, threats of aggression and further enforcement of a genocidal blockade.

There are no violations of human rights in Cuba. There has never been a single case of enforced disappearance, torture or extrajudicial execution, practices widely encouraged by United Sates in Latin America, under the military dictatorships. Nowadays, these hideous practices are further developed and refined in the detention centers at Guantanamo and other territories, illegally occupied as well, and even within its own borders.

Over 23,000 Cuban health care professionals serve in 69 countries; 15,000 young foreigners are benefiting from scholarships granted by Cuba and thousands of other Cuban professionals in the areas of education, science and sports are rendering their services in sisterly African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean countries. A total of 42,835 professionals from the widest possible range of fields and from all latitudes have earned university degrees in Cuba in the last 46 years.

The approval by President George W. Bush on May 6, 2004 of the report submitted by the so-called Committee for the Assistance to a Free Cuba and the fast-track implementation of the measures in this report… enshrines a veritable project for recolonizing the Cuban nation, with the aim of setting it back to the demeaning position of a neocolony in which the United States kept it until 1959.

Those who co-sponsor or vote in support of the draft resolution against Cuba will be the accomplices of the power that attacks and insults a small country whose only fault is to have chosen to be sovereign and independent.

Those who insist in claiming their rights and demanding justice for their peoples, are aware of the fact that they shall be facing the anger, the outrageous lies, the retaliation and even the attacks of those in Washington who profit from the unfair conditions and mechanisms of the prevailing international economic and political order.

In the 61st Session of the Commission on Human Rights, Cuba will continue to work to promote that better world, which is possible, and to defend the right of its people to self-determination, peace and to continue building a more just and equitable society based on solidarity.

Cuba, which has always voted against any attempt to manipulate the works of the Commission on Human Rights for purposes that have no relation whatsoever with the just cause of promoting and protecting those rights, requests the support of all those who are truly committed to strengthening international cooperation in this field.

MS/HG

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MNA