By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA -- Cuba defended its human rights record Friday in a report to
the United Nations, arguing that its communist government answers to the
people and its controls on unions, social groups and the media work to
strengthen individual freedoms.
The opposition denounced the communist government's assertions, with one
activist countering that Havana is now claiming to defend the same
rights it has jailed dissidents for promoting.
In its report to the U.N. Human Rights Council covering 131 topics from
capital punishment to prisons, the communist government said it has
created "an independent and sovereign socialist state of workers,
organized with all and for the good of all."
It detailed how Cuba guarantees rights such as full employment, health
care and free education through college. It also noted that Cuba's
political system is built on elections, and said the Communist Party
guarantees transparency although other political groups are not allowed
to participate.
Under the 1974 constitution, municipal and provincial representatives
are nominated by a show of hands in street-corner votes and confirmed by
secret ballot. Nonmembers of the Communist Party can be nominated.
Those officials help choose parliamentary candidates who run unopposed,
convene two weekends a year and effectively rubber-stamp proposals from
top communist leaders.
Still, the report claimed that "sovereignty is vested in the people" and
justified the political system by citing near-universal turnout in
elections.
Neighborhood association leaders frequently harass Cubans who fail to
cast ballots.
The report said the government encourages free assembly, expression and
"vigorous debate," even though Cuba tolerates no organized political
opposition and controls all workers' organizations and every major
social group.
It argued that state control of all media guarantees freedom of the press.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission on Human
Rights and Reconciliation, called the report "self-justifying and
self-serving."
"It describes Cuba as a paradise," he said. "My opinion, and the opinion
of us defenders of human rights, is this is the worst human rights
situation in the Western Hemisphere."
The government does not recognize Sanchez's group, which says Cuba is
currently holding 206 political prisoners including activists, human
rights leaders and independent journalists.
The report will be formally presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council
Feb. 5.
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