U.N. Human Rights Council ignores Cuba's track record

U.N. Human Rights Council ignores Cuba's track record
Guillermo I. Martinez | Columnist
June 18, 2009

George Orwell's classic novel could well have been titled 2009 instead
of 1984, for much of what he predicted back then has become reality today.

No, we have not quite gotten to the point where people accept the
government saying "War is Peace," but the U.N. Human Rights Council is
coming close.

The official U.N. news release reported about the council's meeting in
Geneva: "In the discussion on Cuba, speakers said Cuba had withstood
many tests, and continued to uphold the principles of objectivity,
impartiality and independence in pursuance of the realization of human
rights. Cuba was and remained a good example of respect for human rights."

The Human Rights Council membership list reads like a Who's Who of
regimes that have little or no respect for human rights. Among them:
Angola, Egypt, Gabon, China, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Cuba.

Nor should one expect these nations to expose the abuses of one of the
member nations for fear that someone might look within its own borders.

Fortunately, human rights organizations and the news media around the
world no longer take what the council says seriously. They have done
their own research, and what they find is precisely the opposite of what
the United Nations says.

Take, for instance, what the Spanish daily ABC printed in its edition
Sunday. The headline reads: "A slow-motion death in Cuban prisons." The
article also points out that of the 75 dissidents arrested in the spring
of 2003, 54 remain behind bars.

ABC says that Cuban government officials have a simple answer whenever
any foreign diplomat or journalists asks about political prisoners in
the island. The response is: "That is a state secret." The newspaper
adds that the Cuban regime has arrested 500 dissidents at least
temporarily during the first six months of the year.

ABC is not alone is decrying Cuba's human rights abuses. Many
international human rights organizations, as well as the U.S. State
Department and Freedom House, annually document Cuba's dismal human
rights record.

Nobody should be surprised by what the Human Rights Council says. That
is what happens when one leaves control of a mental institution to the
inmates.

Guillermo I. Martínez resides in South Florida. His e-mail address is
Guimar123@gmail.com.

Guillermo I. Martinez: U.N. Human Rights Council ignores Cuba's track
record -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com (18 June 2009)
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-gmcol-cuba-orwell-m061809sbjun18,0,6367537.column