Cuba:Cuba hailed yesterday a decision by the new United Nations human rights watchdog to drop the communist nation from a list of countries with poor rights records, calling it a major diplomatic victory over its longtime ideological foe, the United States.
The 47-state Human Rights Council - created in 2006 to replace its discredited predecessor, the Human Rights Commission - agreed on Monday to remove Cuba from a list of nations that will be scrutinised for rights violations.
The decision, which was criticised by Washington, means the UN's special envoy to Cuba will no longer produce periodic reports detailing alleged rights abuses on the island.
"This is a decision that puts an end to 20 years of manipulating Cuba's human rights record under the instigation and enormous pressure from the United States in the old UN Human Rights Commission," foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque said at a news conference in Havana.
"The Cuban government considers this a resounding and indisputable victory of Cuban diplomacy," he added.
This month, UN rights envoy Christine Chanet expressed "deep concern" about the health of about 60 Cuban dissidents jailed in a crackdown four years ago.
But Ms Chanet, a French magistrate who has never been able to visit Cuba, also recommended that the council stops producing special reports on the country because of Havana's lack of co-operation.
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an illegal opposition group that is tolerated by the one-party state, estimates that about 280 Cubans are in prison for political reasons.
The Cuban government denies there are political prisoners on the island and says the jailed dissidents are "mercenaries" on the payroll of the US, which has enforced a trade embargo against Havana for 45 years.
- (Reuters)