Published on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Email To Friend Print Version
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP): The UN's human rights expert on Cuba,
Catherine Chanet, on Tuesday said that her attempts to probe the
situation in the country were reaching an impasse because of Havana's
refusal to cooperate.
Chanet delivered a report to the UN's 47-member Human Rights Council
again criticising political repression and arbitrary detention in Cuba
and highlighting the plight of 59 people arrested in 2003.
However, after five years in the post, she suggested that the Council
should end her mandate because of the Cuban government's intransigeance.
"I have never been able to be in touch with Cuban authorities," Chanet
told the Council's latest session, underlining that it was time to take
note of the fact that "this mandate is leading to a sort of impasse".
The French jurist urged the Council not to reward a government for its
refusal to cooperate and hoped that forthcoming new rules would place
Cuba under scrutiny, under moves to regularly review the human rights
situation in every UN member state.
Cuba's ambassador at the UN in Geneva, Juan Antonio Fernandez Palacios,
said: "The farce is about to end."
More than 15 countries, including Algeria, China, North Korea, Iran,
Sudan, Venezuela and Vietnam backed the Cubans.
Those states are fighting to eliminate the practice of appointing
special rapporteurs like Chanet to investigate specific countries that
have a parlous human rights record, under reforms of the UN's human
rights system.
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