Havana, April 18 (RHC)--Cuba has won a moral victory in Geneva at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, despite the narrow approval of an anti-Cuba resolution regarding alleged human rights violations on the island.
The vote -- 22 in favor of the U.S.-sponsored resolution with 20 nations voting against and ten members abstaining -- comes after what observers called intense arm-twisting by the U.S. delegation and its allies. Introduced by the Czech Republic, the resolution was designed to condemn the Cuban Revolution among the international community.
Early Wednesday morning, the Cuban Foreign Ministry issued a statement strongly condemning Washington's delegation at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva for carrying out a campaign of pressure and intimidation.
According to the statement, the United States shamelessly pressured the African member nations of the Commission Wednesday morning, in a last-ditch effort to change their votes in favor of their resolution.
Minutes before the vote on the anti-Cuba resolution, the head of the Cuba's delegation to the session, Ambassador Carlos Amat, took the stage to highlight the climate of political manipulation and unprecedented pressures that had marked the drafting and final presentation of the document. Amat said that once again, the Human Rights Commission was forced to carry out a shameful action, which damages its credibility and prestige before the international community and leads the world to question the commission's mechanisms and objectives.
Ambassador Amat said it was clear that this practice responded only to the U.S.'s own interest, so that Washington could have an excuse to justify the economic and trade blockade imposed on the Cuban people for over forty years. It also served as a pretext, he said, to justify Washington's hegemonic, interventionist and aggressive policy towards Cuba, which has been repeatedly rejected by the international community.
Following are excerpts from the speech delivered Wednesday by Ambassador Carlos Amat, head of the Cuban delegation to the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Commission:
The Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Carlos Amat, noted that Europe had again yielded before Washington's efforts to try to humiliate Cuba.
"I'm referring to the bill contained in document L-21, presented by the Czech Republic under the dictate of the United States," said the Cuban representative in his address. "We all know the unjust, discriminatory and politicized character with which this issue has been treated. It is clear that it does not respond to a real concern about the issue of human rights. If that were the case, it would be others, including the real authors of this anti-Cuba resolution and their allies, who would be here responding before this commission for the numerous violations of human rights in their own countries, as well as for those that they commit every day outside their borders.
"U.S. control over the text of the draft resolution, and the removal of the paragraph on the blockade, have once again shown the European Union's inability to defend its positions to the last consequences, and its disposition to yield before the hegemonic role of the United States today.
"Cuba strongly rejects this practice, as well as the text of the draft resolution, and considers them to be ill-intended from the beginning, as evidenced by their essence of political manipulation, its fallacious content, and the absolute lack of moral authority on the part of its promoters in their efforts to try to condemn Cuba, whose work in guaranteeing the full enjoyment of all human rights for its people is unquestionable.
"Cuba's work in the area of human rights and dignity for its people is all the more outstanding when considering that during the last 40 years Cuba has had to face direct military aggressions from the United States, sabotage and terrorist actions, assassination plots against its leaders, a ruthless economic war, the introduction of plagues and diseases aimed against both its population and its agriculture, the covert and overt organization and financing of actions against the rule of law and the national security of Cuba, and an unprecedented campaign of slanders and lies."
The head of the Cuban delegation in Geneva, Ambassador Carlos Amat, recalled that on a day like today 40 years ago, Cuba was fighting against the US-organized and financed military invasion at the Bay of Pigs. Amat also noted that industrialized nations are never denounced at the UN Human Rights Commission.
"Does this mean that the powerful do not violate these rights? Or is it that the purpose of this Human Rights Commission is to be used to crush the small countries when they decide to defend their sovereignty and their self-determination? What is presently being done against Cuba certainly sets a dangerous precedent, as it could serve to destroy the sovereignty and independence of nations that might oppose the unacceptable imposition of a single model aimed at doing away with the history and idiosyncrasies of nations and cultures through pressure and blackmail.
"It is also no secret how, over these past three years following the failure of the anti-Cuba resolution in 1998, the United States, worried about this new vote and afraid of the political cost of a new defeat, has once again made use of the Czech Republic to carry out the humiliating role of holding the fig leaf to try to hide their indecent action. However, Washington's role as the real promoter of this action is so evident that a DNA test would be totally unnecessary to determine the true father of this diabolic creature."