International Religious Freedom Day in Cuba on Eve of Membership Vote for UN Human Rights Council

Catholic Laymen threatened day before Castro regime re-elected to Rights Council

Dagoberto Valdés threatened by Castro Intelligence service

October 27th is International Religious Freedom Day. This year marked the 18th anniversary of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, a law that supposedly solidified the role of religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy.

Cuban Catholic layman Dagoberto Valdés was called to appear at State Security headquarters that same day where he was taken to an interrogation room and threatened by Lieutenant Colonel Osvaldo Labrador who warned him that from now on his life would be very difficult.  He was photographed, finger printed and his arterial pressure measured. The entire affair took place over two hours and fifteen minutes. Dagoberto believes that he was targeted specifically for being a Catholic laymen and civil society activist.

This action was carried out on the eve of the Castro regime's vote at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City for membership on the Human Rights Council based in Geneva Switzerland.

Despite a pledge that makes a mockery of both human rights and the historical record the Castro regime obtained 170 votes and will now be a member of the UN Human Rights Council.

2016 has been the worse year on record for religious repression in Cuba since 1992 when the Castro regime ended its status as an atheist regime actively suppressing religious activity.

UN General Assembly in New York City votes on Human Rights Council membership

Dagoberto's full statement, in Spanish, is reproduced below:

DECLARACIÓN DE DAGOBERTO VALDÉS HERNÁNDEZ DESPUÉS DE LA CITA DEL 27 DE OCTUBRE 2016 

Hoy 27 de octubre de 2016 fui citado por dos oficiales del Ministerio del Interior en mi casa a las 10 de la mañana para comparecer hoy a la 1.00 p.m. en la Sede del Departamento Técnico de Investigaciones Criminales (Seguridad del Estado) en el km 4.5 de la carretera a San Juan. 

Llegué a ese lugar a tiempo y unos minutos después de la hora citada me recibieron el Teniente Coronel Osvaldo Labrador, jefe de la Unidad y el Mayor Joaquín. Me condujeron a un cuarto de interrogatorio en el que fue filmada toda la conversación. El Teniente Coronel Labrador, después de preguntarme por mi estado de salud, dijo que esta era una advertencia oficial ante la posibilidad de cometer delitos contra la seguridad del Estado tipificados en el Código Penal del que leyó algunas partes. Me dijo que en todos estos años yo me había mantenido como en el filo de una navaja entre ser un laico de la Iglesia y ser un contrarrevolucionario. Y que a partir de hoy mi vida sería muy difícil. Todo esto en un clima severo y respetuoso. No hubo maltratos físicos. 

El Mayor Joaquín argumentó el por qué de la advertencia diciendo, entre otras cosas, que tenían en su poder material ocupado a alguien que lo había sustraído de mi ordenador personal en mi casa hace unos años en el que aparecía mi diario personal y otros informes de proyectos de apoyo a Convivencia, y que recibía dinero de los Estados Unidos. Le contesté que no hemos recibido nunca financiamiento del gobierno de Estados Unidos. El Mayor me repetía por cuarta vez en esta misma cita que la Revolución no ganaba nada procesando y enjuiciando a Dagoberto Valdés. Que por esto era la advertencia para que yo evaluara y rectificara. Aseguré que Convivencia es y será un proyecto cívico y que todo lo que hacemos es para bien de nuestra Patria. 

Pregunté qué significaba que a partir de hoy mi vida sería difícil y el TC Labrador me explicó que eso sería en caso de que cometiera uno de los delitos advertidos. Pregunté si eso significaba una amenaza y me dijo que era una advertencia y que se levantaría un Acta de Advertencia, se me llevó a un cuarto de “la técnica” y se me tomaron las huellas digitales y palmares, la huella de olor en la pelvis y fotos de frente y de perfil. Después me llevaron a la enfermería para medirme la presión arterial, aunque manifesté al mayor Joaquín que yo me sentía muy bien de salud. Como en efecto fue comprobado en la enfermería. 

Así terminó esta cita de alrededor de dos horas y quince minutos. Reitero lo que dije ante la anterior cita que no se realizó el 19 de octubre de 2016: Estoy en las manos de Dios. Estoy seguro que mi vida de hoy en adelante seguirá en sus Manos y cualquier cosa que pudiera suceder en mi vida lo pongo igualmente en sus Manos de Padre. No tengo ninguna duda de que lo que he hecho es precisamente por ser un hombre de Iglesia, un laico católico. Ofrezco a Dios todo por el bien de Cuba, de su Iglesia y de Convivencia. Aprovecho la ocasión para agradecer de todo corazón la inmensa solidaridad recibida de amigos y hermanos de muchos países e instituciones, así como las oraciones de pastores y hermanos de diferentes confesiones religiosas. 

Dagoberto Valdés Hernández

Director del Centro de Estudios Convivencia

The UN Secretary General's Regrettable Return to Cuba

The moral bankrupting of international institutions continues

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Nicolas Maduro in Havana

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon returned to Havana, Cuba for the signing of the peace accords in the Colombian Peace Process and met with Venezuelan strong man Nicolas Maduro on June 23, 2016. Regrettably during his visit the Secretary General praised Maduro who has plunged Venezuela into a humanitarian crisis that includes hunger riots and prisoners of conscience. 

The Secretary-General met today in Havana, Cuba, with Nicolas Maduro Moros, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The Secretary-General commended Venezuela for its support to the Colombian peace process, saying that the example of Colombia sent a great message to the region and the world. He also thanked Venezuela for its important international role as current member of the Security Council and of the Human Rights Council, as well as Chair of the Committee on Decolonization (C24).

One day later the Venezuelan representative to the UN Human Rights Council sought to shut down discussion on the plight of prisoners of conscience from around the world. UN Watch reported on the episode as follows:

Venezuela was overruled by the chair of the UN human rights council today, when its delegate interrupted a UN speech (see below) in a failed bid to stop the reading of an appeal for council members to release political prisoners on the occasion of the council’s 10th anniversary. The appeal, signed by family members of political prisoners in Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Venezuela, Vietnam and Cuba, was read out today in the plenary of the council by Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights group. Venezuela’s delegate interrupted as soon as Neuer mentioned the name of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. “We do not think it is appropriate to raise specific countries,” he said, even though virtually all of the previous 15 NGO speeches had done exactly that. However, the objection was shot down with uncommon firmness by the session chair, who strongly defended UN Watch’s right to speak. “I have the impression that the speaker was perfectly in the context of this agenda item. We are all in favor of participation of civil society, and this was just a civil society group expressing itself,” he said. Many UN diplomats who chair session are leery of siding with activists when it could upset country delegates.

This is not the first time that the Secretary General has engaged in an Orwellian rewrite of history.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during a previous visit to Cuba in January of 2014 whitewashed the Castro regime's human rights atrocities against Cuban women when he praised the dictatorship for its work on violence against women. In the aftermath of his visit the violence against women by the Castro regime worsened with at least one murder and an attempted murder documented.

UNSG Ban Ki-moon applauds Colombian peace process in Cuba

UN Watch Coalition Urges EU & US to Oppose Regimes in Next Week's UN Human Rights Council Election

Trying to save the United Nations from itself 

UN Watch and Human Rights Foundation brought famous dissidents to testify before a UN luncheon briefing yesterday. Left to right: Chinese dissident Yang Jianli, Cuban dissident Rosa Maria Paya, Saudi dissident Ali Al-Ahmed, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, HRF president Thor Halvorssen, and Russian dissident Masha Gessen.

GENEVA, November 5, 2013 - As the U.N. prepares to elect 14 nations next week to its highest human rights body, a coalition of non-governmental human rights groups and MPs sent an appeal yesterday to U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power and EU foreign affairs commissioner Catherine Ashton urging them to oppose the candidacies of China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Jordan, and Vietnam. The regimes were found to be "Not Qualified" under the U.N.'s own membership criteria, in a report presented yesterday at a UN briefing in New York before media, diplomats and human rights activists.

The qualifications of Maldives, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, South Sudan, Uruguay were deemed "questionable" based on problematic human right records or UN voting records. Click here for PDF of the full report. The evaluations were published by two non-governmental organizations, the Geneva-based UN Watch and Human Rights Foundation.

"China, Cuba, Russia, and Saudi Arabia systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, "and they consistently vote the wrong way on UN initiatives to protect the human rights of others."

"For the UN to elect Saudi Arabia as a world judge on human rights would be like a town fire department choosing a pyromaniac to be its chief firefighter."

With the release of the report, an international coalition of NGOs and MPs appealed to the U.S. and the EU to take action.

Regrettably, so far neither the U.S. nor the EU have said a word about hypocritical candidacies that will undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the UN human rights system. By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies will be complicit in the world body's moral decline.

It will be an insult to their political prisoners and many other victims -- and a defeat for the global cause of human rights -- if the UN helps gross abusers act as champions and global judges of human rights. When the U.N.'s highest human rights body becomes a case of the foxes guarding the hen house, the world's victims suffer.

Yesterday's press briefing by UN Watch and Human Rights Foundation featured courageous champions of human rights pleading against the election of their oppressors:

• Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese civil rights activist who famously escaped house arrest in 2012 after being detained for organizing a lawsuit against Chinese authorities;
• Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi scholar and political analyst who was arrested as a teenager because of his family members’ political activity;
• Masha Gessen, a Russian journalist, author, and LGBT rights activist forced to flee her country with her family after a crackdown on same-sex families;
• Rosa Maria Payá, a human rights advocate from Cuba leading a campaign to launch an investigation into the death of her father, the late democracy leader Oswaldo Payá; and
• Yang Jianli, a Chinese scholar, pro-democracy advocate, and former political prisoner, who presented a petition against China’s bid for a seat on the UNHRC.

Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen and UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer jointly presented their report evaluating the countries that have submitted candidacies for the November 12 election of new members to the UNHRC. Click here for PDF of the full report.

Original link

3 NGOs Seriously Address Human Rights Situation in Cuba UPR Session

Three non-governmental organizations: Jubilee, Amnesty International and UN Watch addressed the systematic and pervasive human rights violations in Cuba and the regime's lack of commitment to respecting human rights instruments on Friday, September 20, 2013.

Mr. Matthew Jones, of the Jubilee campaign and Christian Solidarity Worldwide denounced continued repression in the island and the manipulation of the universal periodic review of Cuba by the dictatorship. Andrea Flora, of Amnesty International reported on the fact that six Cuban prisoners of conscience remain in Cuban prisons. Finally, Ms. Yris Perez Aguilera of UN Watch reported on her own case as a victim of multiple beatings who had received death threats and denounced state security agents exposing themselves and threatening to rape her as a method of intimidation. The Ecuadorian ambassador complained about the language of the presentation even though it fell within U.N. standards. Yris's presentation left the next speaker coughing and at a loss for words.
The following is the summary presented by the United Nations Human Rights Council news feed of three critical and realistic appraisals of the human rights situation in Cuba:

Jubilee Campaign highlighted the substantial increase in the violations of freedom of religion and belief in Cuba. For the first time in years, there were multiple reports of violent beating of church leaders in different parts of the country. The Government employed frequent arbitrary detention without charge.

Amnesty International was concerned that journalists and human rights defenders were harassed in Cuba. Amnesty International was disappointed that Cuba could not accept the recommendations on the ratification of various international human rights instruments, as well as those on the death penalty.

United Nations Watch said that human rights defenders and journalists were harassed and faced death threats in Cuba. Cruelty was worse against black people and women. Human rights defenders were held in arbitrary detention.

Unfortunately, the other six organizations that spoke during the session offered platitudes to the dictatorship and failed to provide a critical appraisal.

Below is Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera's presentation in Spanish.