Cuba constantly violates UN rules for prisons, yet lobbies to retain seat on Human Rights Council

From our Bureau of Socialist Respect for Human Rights with some assistance from our Bureau of Colossal Hypocrisy at the United Nations

Castro, Inc. desperately wants to be seen as a benevolent defender of human rights, but at the very same time jails anyone who dares to speak freely, and also breaks the rules for prisons established by the United Nations. Ironically, those rules are named after Nelson Mandela, who was a great admirer of Castro, Inc.

Don’t expect anything to change. The U.N.’s Secretary General is visiting Cuba this week, but it is highly unlikely that he will bring up the issue of abuses such as those described in this new report.

As far as the U.N. is concerned, Cuba not only has carte blanche to abuse prisoners, but deserves to be praised for doing so, and also to be rewarded with a seat on its Human Rights Council.

Loosely translated from Marti Noticias

The recently created Cuban Prison Documentation Center denounced that the internment of inmates in punishment cells is a “recurrent practice” in Cuban prisons and that it is done in violation of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Inmates.

“In some cases, the time of confinement in these facilities, in inhumane conditions, far exceeds the 15-day limit established by the Mandela Rules,” the report indicates, referring to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Children. Inmates.

The report comes to light in the same week that the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, is visiting the island.

Those also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules prohibit, among other things, indefinite isolation; prolonged isolation for more than 15 days; confinement in a dark or permanently lit cell; corporal punishment or the reduction of food or drinking water.

The Cuban Prison Documentation Center, which is supported by the World Organization Against Torture and Amnesty International, also highlights the use of denial of medical care as a form of torture against prisoners in Cuba.

The report corresponding to the month of August records 143 events related to people deprived of liberty, in 49 penitentiary and instruction centers in all the provinces of the country and a total of 104 victims (13 women and 91 men).

Continue reading HERE in Spanish