the Rapporteur on Torture of the United Nations’ Council on Human Rights NOT ALLOWED IN CUBA

Summit, New Jersey, June 10, 2010. Yesterday, the Rapporteur on Torture of the United Nations’ Council on Human Rights announced his profound disappointment for not being allowed into Cuba for a fact-finding mission. The Austrian human rights lawyer Manfred Nowak reported that Cuba would not accommodate his visit before the end of his term next October 30th (the second of two three-year mandates).


Cuba is a signatory of the Convention Against Torture and member of the United Nations’ Council on Human Rights. Since 2005 Mr. Nowak sought to visit the island; in February 2009 the Cuban government extended him a formal invitation to visit before the end of that year. Since then, Cuban authorities have delayed fixing the date of his visit.


The Rapporteur’s statement reads: "I regret that, in spite of its clear invitation, the government of Cuba has not allowed me to objectively assess the situation of torture and ill-treatment in the country by collecting first-hand evidence from all available sources."

Cuba refuted Nowak’s assertions in a press comuniqué issued yesterday by its Permanent Mission in Geneva. It stated that his statement does not correspond with Cuban officials’ “continued efforts to facilitate the visit.” Though declaring that Cuba “does not need an objective evaluation of the country’s situation,” it clarified that the invitation was in place and that it would continue to seek “a mutually agreeable date” for the visit. Among affirmations of Cuba’s alleged achievements in penal and judicial rights, it included not producing “a single case of extrajudicial execution or forced disappearance.” For years, high officials of the Cuban regime have made similar public statements.

Cuba Archive challenges the Cuban government to allow the Rapporteur’s visit before October and to also disprove each one of the hundreds of extrajudicial executions or forced disappearances documented by its Truth and Memory project. Details of each case are available in an electronic database at www.CubaArchive.org. This website also contains summaries in English and Spanish of a sample of these cases, many of which have been reported to international organizations and are substantiated by the testimony of witnesses and family members of the victims.

Aside from over 3,800 executions by the current Cuban regime documented to date, Cuba Archive has recorded over 1,300 extrajudicial executions, including several massacres of civilians –such as the Tugboat massacre of 1994, the Canimar River massacre of 1980, the shootdown of two civilian airplanes in 1996, and the killings of hundreds of political prisoners. Civilians attempting to escape the country and several political dissidents and opponents are among the forced disappearances.


Documents containing details of all recorded cases are available for inspection by human rights experts.



Contact:

Cuba Archive
P.O. Box 529
Summit, NJ 07902 U.S.A.
Tel. 973.701-0520
www.CubaArchive.org