27 January 2003
U.N. Appoints French
Magistrate as Human Rights Representative on Cuba
(Christine Chanet to report on Cuba's human rights situation) (450)
Washington -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has
appointed a special representative to report on the human rights situation
in Cuba.
In a January 27 statement, the United Nations said French magistrate
Christine Chanet will report her findings on Cuba at the U.N. Commission on
Human Rights' annual session March 17 in Geneva, Switzerland. The
commission, created in 1946, is composed of the United States and 52 other
members and meets for six weeks each year in Geneva.
Chanet's appointment resulted from a U.N. resolution that invited the Cuban
government "to endeavor to realize progress in the field of human rights and
civil and political rights." The resolution criticized Cuba's record on
human rights, and castigated the regime of Cuban President Fidel Castro for
violating several international covenants on political and social rights.
The Cuban government has denounced the U.N. resolution and not permitted any
human rights groups to inspect its prisons since 1989. The resolution was
proposed by Uruguay and co-sponsored by fellow U.N. commission members from
Latin America and Europe. The resolution called on the Castro government to
let a U.N. rights representative visit the island, and to respect individual
liberties, including freedom of speech, press, association, and assembly.
The latest U.S. State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices
reinforces the U.N. conclusions about Cuba's record on human rights. The
report, released in March 2002, said Cuba's citizens do not have the right
to change their government peacefully, while Cuban authorities harass,
arrest, and imprison human rights advocates and members of independent
professional associations, including journalists, economists, doctors, and
lawyers.
Castro has rejected a petition drive by Cuban dissidents for a national
referendum in Cuba on civil liberties. The drive, called the Varela Project,
collected more than 10,000 certified signatures for a referendum on freedom
of speech, electoral reform, and amnesty for political prisoners.
Senator Bill Nelson (Democrat of Florida), who introduced a resolution in
the U.S. Congress expressing support for the Varela Project, said the
petition drive was "home- grown and not a project of foreign citizens or
governments." The resolution pointed out that the Varela Project petition
was "in accordance with Article 88 of the Cuban Constitution" on holding a
referendum on civil liberties.
Chanet, the United Nations' new human rights representative on Cuba, was
president of a U.N. Human Rights Committee in 1997 and 1998, becoming the
first woman to occupy this position in the committee's 20- year history. She
also served as a member of a U.N. Committee Against Torture.
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) |
