UN rapporteur Tomoya Obokata, one of the few honest officials at the UN, is speaking out about the communist Castro dictatorship’s forced labor practice imposed on political prisoners in Cuban gulags. Reports from independent human rights groups expose the regime’s use of political prisoners as slave labor in the production of products the dictatorship exports for hard currency.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Tomoya Obokata, condemned the forced labor imposed on political prisoners in Cuban jails. This condemnation was supported by a report from Prisoners Defenders (PD) last June, which was included in the recent report to the UN Human Rights Council.
According to PD, the report exposes the severe conditions faced by inmates in Cuban prisons, highlighting a stark disconnect between legal norms and the harsh reality experienced by prisoners, especially those of conscience and political prisoners.
Javier Larrondo, president of the Madrid-based NGO, explained to Martí Noticias that the special rapporteur endorsed their organization’s allegations, revealing specific cases from a small sample of the thousands of prisoners forced into labor during their incarceration.
Larrondo emphasized that two primary forms of forced labor imposed on political prisoners in Cuba include the production of marabou charcoal and cutting sugar cane during the harvest. The PD report notes that these activities constitute a contemporary form of slavery, orchestrated under the direction of the Cuban regime, violating at least nine fundamental rights of prisoners.
Among the violations listed by PD are the lack of safety and health measures at work, inadequate remuneration, compulsory nature of the work, and child exploitation. Additionally, threats of reprisals and denial of prison benefits are reported for those who refuse to participate in these tasks. The report also mentions the lack of training and education, leading to penalties for alleged “workplace indiscipline.”
Unfortunately, Obokata’s colleagues at the UN will do and say nothing about it, but it is heartening to find there are still some principled individuals in this corrupt and reprobate organization.
Condensed regime response to Tobokata: We pity the fool.