human rights in cuba

human rights in cuba Sec. 599B. (1) Findings.— The Congress finds that— (A) the United Nations in 1989 issued its first report on humans rights in Cuba this year, the result of a year-long investigation that concluded on the 30th year of Fidel Castro’s rise to power; (B) the report extensively documented across-the-board human rights abuses that include cases of torture, missing people, religious persecution, violations of civil and political rights and violations of economic and social rights; (C) the United Nations received 137 complaints of “torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”; (D) among the abuses reported to the United Nations were sensory deprivation, immersion in a pit latrine, mock executions, overcrowding in special cells, deafening loudspeakers, keeping prisoners naked in front of relatives, and forcing a prisoner about to be executed to carry his own coffin or dig his own grave; (E) the United Nations commissioners also charged the Cuban regime with carrying out reprisals against Cuban citizens who offered testimony to the United Nations group, a clear violation of the Castro’s government’s promise not to harass those who complained about human rights; (F) at least 22 Cuban human rights activists who were arrested are currently serving prison sentences or being held without trial; (G) the Human Rights Commission approved a resolution on March 9, 1989, calling on the Cuban government to cooperate with the Secretary General of the United Nations in settling unresolved issues raised by the human rights study group; (H) since March 9, 1989, the United Nations has failed to take any substantive action to follow up on the March 9 resolution. 103 STAT. 1261 The United Nations also has failed to intervene on behalf of those who are now imprisoned because of their attempts to testify before the United Nations human rights investigative group last fall. (2) Statement of Policy.— In the interest of promoting respect for human rights in Cuba, the Congress— (A) calls on the Secretary General of the United Nations to act upon the resolution approved by the Commission on Human Rights March 9, 1989, calling on the Secretary General to take appropriate follow up action on the Commission’s report; (B) calls on the Secretary General to specifically urge the Cuban government to release the 22 persons still being held in detention because of their human rights activities; (C) calls on the United States Ambassador to the United Nations to make known in the strongest terms the dissatisfaction of the United States with the failure by the United Nations to continue to act on its own resolution; and (D) calls on the Secretary of the United Nations to expand the United Nation’s investigation of Cuba to include an examination of labor rights in recognition of current Cuban law which prohibits the formation of independent unions and which has led to the imprisonment of those Cuban workers who have tried to organize themselves.