OAS Lifts Ban on Cuba

The Organization of American States (OAS) has lifted its 47-year ban on Cuba, inviting Cuba to return if it meets certain conditions. Nevertheless, Cuba has said it will not return.

The Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas Baca read the resolution to delegates in San Pedro Sula.

She said Cuba can rejoin after initiating a dialogue with the group and conforming to its practices and principles.

The document says those principles include democracy, self-determination and human rights.

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Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said Cuba and other Latin American nations have suffered a long history of injuries at the hands of so-called imperialism. He told delegates that the United States could do even more to reconcile the past.

Maduro said it should not be too much to ask for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba. He said Venezuela welcomed the OAS decision but it was not enough.

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In Washington, a group of U.S. congressmen condemned the OAS decision and proposed a bill that would withhold U.S. funding for the group, which is based in the U.S. capital. In a statement, Florida Representative Connie Mack said hundreds of Cubans live as political prisoners and many suffer constant fear and repression.

UN Watch/Freedom House Joint Report on Repressive Regimes Running for Election to the UN Human Rights Council

The message from UN Watch:

UN Watch was at U.N. headquarters in New York yesterday to release a joint report with Freedom House opposing repressive regimes running for election to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The luncheon briefing was co-organized by both human rights groups, and attended by diplomats, reporters and human rights activists. UN Watch also brought human rights victims and dissidents from Cuba and Saudi Arabia to personally testify about the gross violations committed by some of the worst abusers who are seeking re-election next week. Click here for new report. The following article on our report was published today in Canada's National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Vanouver Sun, Edmonton Journal, and Calgary Herald.
(The article is here.)

US Trade With Cuba and Human Rights

Last week Geoff Thale of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection in a hearing called “Examining the Status of US Trade with Cuba and Its Impact on Economic Growth”. In his testimony Mr. Thale discusses trade relations between the US and Cuba and the subsequent implications these relations have in the promotion of human rights. A couple quotes:

I bring a background as a human rights advocate to this hearing, and I would like in my testimony to talk about human rights in Cuba, the effects of current U.S. sanctions on the human rights situation, and how a change in U.S. policy that opens up travel, trade, and engagement might also open up dialogue on the human rights situation in Cuba. Let me be clear, WOLA does not believe that trade alone brings democracy and human rights. Only when trade is accompanied by political and diplomatic engagement with human rights issues, and with homegrown pressure for the respect of human rights, can the potential to effect human rights be realized.

If we choose to engage, there are tools that can be used to encourage greater respect for human rights and democratic practices on the part of our trading partners. These range from diplomatic efforts and engagement, in a transparent way, with civil society, to policy dialogue linked to investment or economic aid, or trade conditionality. But even under the most conducive conditions, the process of change can be slow, responding to international pressures but more importantly to internal political dynamics. We hope and expect that engagement will encourage political opening and change in Cuba, but we do not expect that change in Cuba will happen overnight.

Thale also discussed other countries' approaches to Cuba as well as US trade interests.