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HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION APPROVES WEAK RESOLUTION ON CUBA.

Article Excerpt
During is 59th annual session on the state of human rights around the world, the UN Human Rights Commission, meeting in Geneva, approved a resolution implicitly criticizing Cuba though without censure. Cuba took the weak resolution as a sign of US isolation, especially as the US was outvoted on other resolutions asserting such universal rights as food, health, and education.

State Department data suspect

According to the State Department, US embassies prepare much of the raw material for the reports on human rights using information "from a variety of sources across the political spectrum." Among those sources are journalists and human rights groups.

In Washington, the reports from the field undergo review by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Collaborating on the final country reports are State Department officers who see to it that they meet the department standard "that all relevant information was assessed as objectively, thoroughly, and fairly as possible."

The reports are used to shape policy, says the State Department, and provide the basis for the annual US-promoted resolutions at the Human Rights Commission.

Considerable evidence now exists that many journalists and human rights organizations in Cuba were funded and managed by the State Department through its Interests Section in Havana (see NotiCen, 2003-04-24). Logically, material collected from those sources can be considered tainted. Instead of the reports shaping policy, it is likely that policy shapes the reports.

Costa Rica, Peru, Nicaragua, and Uruguay offered this year's resolution on Cuba, which disappointed the US because it did not include any specific condemnation. Instead of censuring Cuba, or even referring to specific cases of alleged rights violations, the three-paragraph resolution only asks Cuba to receive Francoise Chanet, personal representative of the...