FRFI 161 June / July 2001
This year at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, it was Britain’s turn to sponsor the annual resolution condemning Cuba for its alleged human rights abuses. It was passed by the narrow majority of two, 22 to 20. This was two less than last year’s majority. BARNABY MITCHELL reports.
Behind this result lies the hand of US imperialism, determined to destroy Cuban socialism and its international example. Yet each year, it becomes more difficult for the US to muster the required majority. Last year, the Czech Republic had been only too keen to demonstrate its neo-colonial status by authoring the resolution. This time things went awry when the Czech government slipped in a phrase attacking the US blockade. Britain had to adopt a much higher profile in ensuring that things were brought back in line. Thus when Kenya pledged to vote in favour of Cuba, in stepped Clare Short’s International Development Department which dangled a $37 million offer of aid to support treatment of 1.6 million Kenyans who suffer from HIV/AIDS. The Kenyans changed their minds and abstained.
The human rights issue has always been used by the likes of the US and Britain to pressurise or attack countries in the developing world. It is a fact that the Geneva Commission has never passed a resolution against a developed (ie imperialist) country. Cuba is condemned for alleged infringements of liberal democratic freedoms; ignored are the basic rights it provides to its people that are denied to billions throughout the world, including tens of millions in the US and Britain: the right to adequate food, decent healthcare and a full education.
Cuba itself sits as a full member of the UNHRC, and has used its position as part of its counter-offensive against imperialism. Recently a resolution it proposed to consider access to adequate food to be a human right was approved, with the US the only dissenter. The US also vetoed another resolution co-sponsored by Cuba supporting the right to essential medicines; other countries with large pharmaceutical industries supported the US. A similar line-up of imperialist countries opposed a further resolution for the establishment of a more just economic order, criticising the detrimental impact of IMF structural adjustment packages and the crippling nature of foreign debt.
Cuba has responded to the UNHRC condemnation in the way it deals with all major political issues, by holding mass meetings and debates throughout the country to discuss the issue. Special televised ‘Roundtable’ discussions have been held. Last year Cuba responded by exposing human rights abuses in the Czech Republic and other Latin American countries which had supported the US resolution. This year Cuba has revealed the dirty tricks played by the US and Britain to blackmail governments into supporting the resolution.
In a neat twist, the US has recently been voted off the UNHRC which has caused it much embarrassment. This was possible because this vote, unlike others, involves a secret ballot. Hence many countries, particularly in Africa, which the US has continually threatened with economic and political pressure to secure their support for US imperialism’s interests, were able to get their own back. The US is now refusing to pay its dues to the UN as a consequence.
Labour’s ‘ethical’ foreign policy of course requires it to be in the forefront of the anti-Cuban alliance. FRFI readers should need no reminders about Labour’s record on human rights: its bombing campaigns against Iraq and Yugoslavia in defiance of international law, or its draconian Terrorism Act which Amnesty International says would ‘either directly contravene international human rights treaties…or may result in human rights violations.’ Cuba’s exposure of Britain’s role this year deserves our support; its use of every available forum to fight back against imperialism shows its renewed confidence after overcoming the economic problems of the past few years.
