Why Cuba should not be on the UN Human Rights Council
What the regime claims and some of the facts in evidence not mentioned
Yuri Valle Roca, arrested by Cuban police on International Human Rights Day 2015
The totalitarian dictatorship in Cuba is undertaking to return to the United Nations Human Rights Council with a campaign pledge completely at odds with the regime’s human rights record. The vote will be taking place later today at the United Nations.
In light of all the falsehoods and omissions a few facts placed in historical context are needed for the sake of the historical record.
First it is important to mention that during Cuba’s democratic spring that lasted from the free elections of 1940 until a 1952 coup the island nation played a historic role in advancing regional and international human rights first at the Organization of American States and later at the United Nations with the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Tragically, the revolutionary communist regime of the Castro brothers over the past 57 years has done everything possible to undermine and destroy this legacy. Below is a partial accounting of the “great importance” the Castro dictatorship has attached to human rights:
The Castro regime had been one of the few voices applauding the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in China congratulating them for “defeating the counterrevolutionary acts.”
On March 28, 2008 the Castro regime’s delegation together with the Organization of Islamic Congress (OIC) successfully passed resolutions undermining international freedom of expression standards at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
On February 2, 2009 during the Universal Periodic Review of China the Cuban Ambassador, Juan Antonio Fernandez Palacios encouraged the Chinese regime to repress human rights defenders in China with more firmness.
On May 28, 2009 amidst a human rights crisis in Sri Lanka the Cuban government’s diplomats took the lead and successfully blocked efforts to address the wholesale slaughter there.
On August 23, 2011 the Cuban government along with China, Russia and Ecuador voted against investigating gross and systematic human rights violations in Syria.
On March 17, 2014 the UN Human Rights Council “was divided” in its discussion of the atrocities in North Korea between those who want the case to be elevated to the International Criminal Court and those who reject outright the existence of a commission of inquiry and conclusions. The Castro regime vigorously defended the North Korean regime and denounced the inquiry.
On March 21, 2014 at the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Castro dictatorship again applauded the human rights record of the People’s Republic of China, and voted to block the effort of human rights defenders to hold a moment of silence for Cao Shunli. She was an activist who had tried to participate in China’s Universal Periodic Review, but was detained at the airport trying to get on a flight to attend the current session and accused of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles.” Within three months in detention and being denied medical care Cao Shunli died on March 14, 2014.
The Castro regime has worked tirelessly to undermine human rights standards worldwide and collaborated with some of the worse regimes in the world with such effectiveness that the end result has been human rights in decline for over a decade world wide.
