Speeches

The UN Human Rights Council:  Standing Up for Values We Share

Op-ed by Ambassador John D. Rood

May 22, 2006

 

Sixty years ago, the United Nations created the Commission on Human Rights.  The Commission’s great achievement was the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, a declaration that recognized the rights of all persons to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of religion and conscience, freedom of movement and freedom to leave one’s own country.  It recognized the universal rights to be free from arbitrary arrest, detention and exile, freedom to assemble, freedom to own property and the right for all persons to take part in their own government.

In recent years the Commission unfortunately failed to promote these universal rights.  As stated by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, “the Commission has been increasingly undermined by its declining credibility and professionalism." He pointed out that some states sought membership on the Commission "not to strengthen human rights, but to protect themselves against criticism."  In its place, Annan proposed creating a Human Rights Council, whose members "should undertake to abide by the highest human rights standards."

As the UN sought to reform the discredited human rights body, the United States and other responsible members of the international community worked hard to ensure that only countries that respected the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and strove to uphold its tenets would be responsible for protecting it.  Most of the countries elected to the Council meet this standard.

In our own hemisphere, only one of the elected members elected fails to meet this standard.  According to the watchdog group Freedom House, Cuba is one of the world's "most repressive" regimes.  A quick look at the Declaration's goals and Cuba's record shows why.

Religious freedom, as Pope John Paul II reminded the UN when he addressed it in 1979, is the most fundamental of all freedoms.  It is a freedom that Bahamians and Americans hold near and dear.  Unfortunately, as the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom states in its 2005 report: "Religious belief and practice continue to be tightly controlled in Cuba."

Bahamians and Americans also share our devotion to free expression, the freedom to assemble and associate.  We both insist on the freedom to move and travel, and we are both committed to the rule of law based in an independent judiciary.  In Cuba, by contrast, Human Rights Watch reports that "Cubans are systematically denied basic rights to free expression, association, assembly, privacy, movement and due process of law."  In fact, the Government maintains a tight media monopoly, and harasses and imprisons pro-democracy activists, labor activists, independent journalists and librarians, often forcing them into exile.  In March 2003, while Cuba sat on the former UN Commission on Human Rights, the Government imprisoned 75 human rights activists for nothing other than peacefully expressing opposition to the government. 

These abuses continue.  Over the past several months, the Castro regime has directed government-sponsored mobs to intimidate, threaten, and even attack peaceful dissidents including Hilda Molina, Felix Bonne, and members of the Sigler Amaya family.  The most recent incident occurred April 25 -- while Cuba was lobbying for a seat on the new Human Rights Council -- when dissident Martha Beatriz Roque was attacked in her home, beaten, bruised and prevented from exercising her universal right to associate and speak freely.

The United States welcomes reasoned debate about how best to improve Cuba’s human rights record and promote universally recognized basic rights for the Cuban people.  Accordingly, we do not criticize governments for engaging Cuba or disagreeing with the U.S. decision not to have economic or diplomatic relations with Cuba.  What should be beyond debate, however, is that a government with Cuba’s record on human rights should not be responsible for enforcing and promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Cuba's own diplomatic representative here in The Bahamas has publicly made clear Cuba does not share a commitment to the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration.

If the Human Rights Council is ever to achieve the goals Kofi Annan envisaged for it, all countries must take a clear stand on the side of repressed people around the world who live without freedom.  If the United Nations is to be relevant and effective in promoting universal human rights, its member nations must have the courage to promote their own values, as reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  I know the people of the Bahamas hold these rights dear, just as we in the United States do.  The United States has taken a public pledge to support only countries genuinely committed to these ideals; we hope in the future The Bahamas will join in this pledge and work with us to build a world where respect for mankind's most fundamental rights is truly universal.