4-24-05, 9:44 am

In its assessment of the 61st Session of the UN Commission Human Rights (UNCHR), international human rights organization Amnesty International criticized the undue influence of the US relationship with Cuba on the overall work of the commission.

In a press statement Amnesty's UN representative Peter Splinter said, 'The highly politicized relationship between Cuba and the USA continued to have a negative influence on the Commission.' In fact, the positive work of the commission, in Amnesty's view, was overshadowed by this tension between Cuba and the US.

Splinter referred to a resolution sponsored by the US that called for investigations of the situation of human rights in Cuba. The resolution, motivated purely by the Bush administration’s animosity for the island country, passed by a narrow margin.

Splinter also addressed the resolution proposed by Cuba calling for a special examination of the situation of US prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay by a representative of the UNCHR. This resolution was not adopted.

The UNCHR's 61st session closed on April 22nd without specifically addressing the atrocities occurring in any US-run prison in Cuba, Iraq, or Afghanistan.

An official statement by the Cuban Government pointed to the economic, political and military power of the US over key states on the commission that pushed both resolutions to an outcome favored by the US. The Bush administration resorted to 'intimidation and blackmail' to get what it wanted from the commission.

To date, the US has refused to respond to a UNCHR request made last year to visit the detention facilities to verify reports about the treatment of prisoners held there. Despite the failure to respond, a US representative to the UNCHR, Lino Piedra, told the media that the previous UNCHR request to visit Guantanamo Bay made the Cuban resolution redundant.

He couldn’t deny the fact of human rights violations at US-prison facilities Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Piedra did not mention when UN representatives would be allowed to visit.

Joanna Weschler of Human Rights Watch (HRW) chided the international community for its timidity on holding the US to account for torture and other atrocities in its facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan. 'The international community should not shy away from addressing the issue of the legality and treatment of detainees held by the United States at Guantánamo,' said Weschler. 'The United States should grant the UN special rapporteurs access to Guantánamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan and other detention locations.'

Cuba presented a similar resolution in 2004 about the Guantanamo detainees, but withdrew it when some European countries requested it do so. According to Havana, 'At that time, the evidence we have today, on the flagrant and systematic violations of human rights of the detainees at the illegal Guantanamo Base, was not available. There are over 500 prisoners from more than 40 countries, including Europeans and even minors, and it was not known that apparently it was this facility where the methods of torture, later extended to other US detention centers located outside its territory, were first tested.'

Cuba also accused the European Union delegation for failing to abide by instructions ordered by the European Parliament, which passed a resolution in October of 2004 that 'requested the government of the United States to allow an impartial and independent investigation on the allegations of torture and mistreatment of all persons deprived of their freedom and under their custody.' This resolution also instructed the European Union to present a draft resolution on this issue to the 61st session of the UNCHR.

The EU delegation failed to do so and voted against the only resolution on the issue of torture addressed specifically to the United States and the infamous atrocities that have taken place in its prison facilities.

The EU's decision came quickly after the US circulated a document expressing its opposition to the Guantanamo resolution

Cuba described the US political maneuvering as an attempt by the Bush administration to prevent the world from truly understanding what is happening at Guantanamo Bay.

One Cuba diplomat in Geneva added that torture and mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay is not the work of a 'few bad apples' but of the official policy of the administration.

Both Amnesty and HRW criticized Cuba for announcing its refusal to abide by the US-sponsored resolution. Their criticisms, however, failed to reference the disparity of power wielded by the US and the enormous pressure put on other countries to support its wishes.

Human rights groups and the Cuban government agreed that the outcomes of this session make reforming this important commission imperative if it is to maintain credibility.



--Joel Wendland can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.