[NYTr] Cuba to Sign Human Right Agreements

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Cuba to Sign Human Right Agreements

Havana, Dec 10 (acn) Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said on 
Monday that Cuba will sign during the first trimester of 2008 the 
International Agreement on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the 
International Agreement on Civil and Political Rights.

In statements to the press, the Cuban diplomat said that the step taken 
by the island, coinciding with the Human Rights Day celebrations, is 
the result of a sovereign decision, without any external political 
influence.

Perez Roque noted that the rights contained in both agreements are 
widely protected by the national legal system and by the Cuban 
Revolution policies since their implementation after 1959.

The Cuban Minister said his country will ratify with the signing of the 
document its close cooperation with the United Nations Organization on 
the basis of the respect to Cuban national sovereignty.

He said the signing of the international agreement was not possible 
while the US government used the Human Rights Commission as an 
inquisitorial trial to prosecute the countries which rebelled against 
its imperial domination.

"This situation has radically changed with the emergence of the new 
Human Rights Council, of which Cuba is a founder member along with two 
thirds of the international community," noted Perez Roque.

The Cuban official also called upon the US administration to end the 
criminal blockade against the island, close the torture camp in the US 
Naval base in Guantanamo, extradite confessed terrorist Posada Carriles 
to Venezuela, and release the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters 
unjustly held in US prisons for over nine years.