In Geneva, UN rights expert tells of 'unprecedented wave of oppression' in Cuba

An "unprecedented wave of oppression" has taken place in Cuba, with many arrests, quick trials without lawyers present, very heavy sentences and conditions of detention that are of great concern, according to a senior United Nations human rights official.

Christine Chanet, Personal Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation in Cuba, told the UN Commission on Human Rights yesterday in Geneva that she had attempted to gain the cooperation of the Cuban authorities in carrying out her mandate, but had been unsuccessful.

She had therefore relied on various other sources and mechanisms in compiling her report and the information in her report corresponded to information available to other UN and was thus impartial and objective.

Ms. Chanet also noted that with regard to economic, social and cultural rights the Cuban Government had progressed, as it had in other areas including religious freedom.

Cuban representative Jorge Ivan Mora Godoy said the Commission's "anti-Cuban exercise" was part of its unjust politicized practices enthroning partiality, selectivity and discriminatory treatment against the countries of the South.

Its motivation, origin and evolution had been determined by a policy of domination that the United States Government had tried to impose on Cuba, against whose people it had conducted various aggressions, including a genocidal blockade that had now dragged on for over four decades, he added.

In reaction, the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, said Ms. Chanet was a person of impeccable integrity, her work had always reflected this and he wished to thank her for the job done.