For human rights in Cuba and worldwide

Posted on Sat, Sep. 16, 2006

VERBATIM
For human rights in Cuba and worldwide
By OSWALDO PAYA SARDIÑAS

Below are excerpts of a message from Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, prominent
Cuban democracy activist and Christian Liberation Movement leader, to
delegates at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana this week.

The nations that belong to the Non-Aligned Movement, now at their summit
here in Cuba, have proclaimed that the most important mission for this
event is the defense of the international rule of law; the right to
peace, sovereignty and self-determination of peoples; and the
recognition of the right of every nation to provide to its own economic,
social and political system. Also a priority is the necessity of a new
international economic order.

Only through a dialogue without borders -- among states, nations,
cultures and citizens of all nations, as free men and women -- based on
mutual respect and goodwill may such objectives be achieved. Such
objectives are legitimate and just aspirations of all peoples,
regardless of their economic or cultural development or geographical
situation. Moreover, these are legitimate and achievable aspirations for
international relations based on solidarity, cooperation and fraternal
alliance between human families who share planet Earth as home.

Our exhortation, for the members of the Non-Aligned Movement as well as
all other nations, is for such a dialogue without borders to begin.

But these aspirations cannot be disconnected from the aspiration and the
right that the citizens of the world have to be free beings whose rights
are respected in their native countries.

Yet in Cuba, host for this summit that proclaims these noble goals,
peaceful citizens remain imprisoned for defending human rights and
advocating changes so that all citizens may enjoy political, social,
economic and civil rights.

How can the goals of respecting the right of nations to sovereignity and
to choose their own political, social and economic systems be achieved
if the citizens of some countries cannot freely express themselves,
elect their own government, travel, enjoy all human rights, or if they
cannot democratically change the political or economic system because
the system has been declared irrevocable?

Inseparable rights

There is no legitimacy for a nation that does not embrace all of its
citizens without exclusions. It is not valid, either, to pit a nation's
right to self-determination and sovereignty against the fundamental
rights of the peoples and individuals. On the contrary, those rights are
inseparable. A nation cannot honestly aspire toward some rights without
aspiring toward others.

We are asking the honorable Secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Annan,
and all delegates attending this summit, to advocate for the liberation
of all nonviolent Cuban political prisoners -- at this event, at the
U.N. General Assembly and U.N. Human Rights Council. Requesting the
Cuban government to comply with this act of justice contributes to
reconciliation and peace among Cubans and to the international peace and
justice that the Non-Aligned Movement proclaims.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15533899.htm