Cuba Wants To Represent Human Rights at UN

[Bonnie]

I almost put this in the humor section..Try not to laugh too hard... :cof:




Cuba Declares Its Candidacy for UN Human Rights Body
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
April 06, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - Pledging to share its experiences in the human rights field with the international community, Cuba's communist government has announced its candidacy for the United Nations' new Human Rights Council (HRC).

"The Cuban people can show to the world, with deep modesty but with full satisfaction and pride, its tremendous achievements," President Fidel Castro's government said in a document sent to other U.N. member states' missions in New York, requesting support for its candidacy.

The HRC, which will hold its inaugural meeting in Geneva on June 19, replaces the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), long criticized because rights-abusing states were accused of seeking admission to block criticism of themselves and their allies.

Cuba, which held a seat on the now-defunct UNCHR from 1976 to 1984 and again from 1989 until its dissolution last month, was one of the countries most frequently cited by critics in this regard.

Cuba is one of 34 countries whose candidacies for the 47-seat HRC have been made public by the U.N. as of early Thursday. Others that have raised eyebrows because of their often-criticized human rights records include Iran, Pakistan and Algeria.

The U.N. General Assembly will hold elections for the HRC on May 9.

The resolution establishing the new body called on states, when voting, to take into account candidates' contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights. Members will also have their own human rights records scrutinized in a "universal periodic review."

In its supporting document dated April 4, the Cuban government said it had participated constructively in negotiations to ensure that the HRC avoids "the harmful practices of confrontation and political manipulation which brought discredit on the Commission on Human Rights."

Chief among the "tremendous achievements' Cuba had to show the world, it said, was "the full exercise of its right to self-determination, facing the grave obstacles and threats derived from the unilateral policy of hostility, aggression and blockade imposed on it by the superpower."

The right to self-determination is a so-called "third-generation" right which -- unlike "first-generation" rights such as freedom of speech and religion, and "second-generation" rights such as the right to education -- do not feature strongly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"Cuba will continue working in the progressive development of the third-generation rights and particularly of the value of international solidarity," the document said.

In calling for states' support for its candidacy, Havana noted that it will take over the rotating chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) next September, succeeding Malaysia, which has held the chair since 2003.

As a member of the HRC, it said, Cuba would effectively promote NAM's traditional human rights initiatives, especially with regard to "the right to development."

more
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200604/FOR20060406a.html