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United Nations, May 9, 2006. (Prensa Latina) Cuba
was elected to join the Human Rights Council by
135 votes in the first round of voting within the
General Assembly.
By its membership, the Caribbean Island will thus
fill one of eight seats reserved for Latin America
and the Caribbean, along with Brazil (165),
Argentina (158), Mexico (154), Peru (145),
Guatemala (142), Uruguay (141) and Ecuador (128).
Foreign Minister Highlights Cuban Victory at Human
Rights Council
Havana, May 9, 2006. (Prensa Latina) Cuban Foreign
Minister Felipe Perez Roque described the Island´s
election to join the recently-created Human Rights
Council as his country´s most important victory in
foreign policy.
Perez Roque, who is in Madrid in transit to Vienna
to attend the European Union-Latin America summit,
sent a telephone message to his Ministry´s
workers, who assembled to celebrate Cuba´s
election.
The minister noted that the 135 votes that took
Cuba to the Council are more than one third of the
191 member countries represented at the United
Nations General Assembly.
Perez Roque added that this success is even more
transcendental, considering the US-sponsored
campaign to prevent Cuba´s membership in the
Council. Washington was backed up by the European
Union despite public denials by that bloc.
The Cuban minister said that the votes in favor of
Cuba were mainly cast by Third World countries and
other nations, which decided, in some cases, to
even ignore the instructions they had received not
to vote.
The foreign minister pointed out that Cuba´s
election is an acknowledgement of its permanent
work in defense of human rights and true
recognition of the Cuban revolution.
On the other hand, he added, Washington was forced
not to present its candidacy out of fear of not
being elected, while it is accused of torturing
prisoners at the illegal base in Guantanamo and in
other secret prisons in Europe.
Human Rights Council Elected
United Nations, May 9, 2006 (Prensa Latina) The UN
General Assembly will select 47 new members of the
new Human Rights Council, from among more than 60
candidates, to begin meeting in Geneva next month.
Over the opposition of the United States, this
mechanism was approved in March and the old Human
Rights Commission closed, suffering a credibility
crisis due to its selective and political
manipulation by the powerful nation against those
in development.
Cuba, one of the candidates for the new Council,
argues that it has fought to create this new
mechanism and to see that “the pernicious
practices of the Commission” do not become part ot
the new Council.
The seats on the Human Rights Council are to be
distributed geographically, 13 to Africa, 13 to
Asia, 6 for Eastern Europe, and 8 for Latin
America and the Caribbean. Seven seats will be
divided between the 25 members of the European
Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand.
The US is not up for consideration today as it has
to respond to a human rights panel on accusations
of torture in its war against terrorism.
The Latin American and Caribbean candidates (8
seats) are Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Mwxico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay and
Venezuela.
Council members will serve for three years, but
only for two consecutive (elected) terms.
(Minrex) 09-05-2006
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