Cuba will present its National Report to the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council next February 5th in Geneva.


"Cuba goes into this review with its head held high, the truth in its hands and a clean conscience of having worked in favor of every Cuban's rights and of many other millions of human beings around the world," said Cuban foreign minister Perez Roque at a press conference at the Foreign Ministry building.

The Cuban FM pointed out that the conclusions on Cuba's presentation will be issued by the UPR Working Group on February 9th and the official approval of such conclusions will be given at a formal session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Perez Roque announced that Cuba will attend that session with a delegation head by Justice Minister Maria Esther Reus.

He also said that Cuba goes into this review earnestly and with a sense of responsibility, convinced that a respectful dialogue, based on principles of objectivity, impartiality and not selectivity, is the only path for international cooperation on this topic.

The Cuban report is the result of a profound process that involved many governmental entities, as well as hundreds of NGOs.

The Minister underscored that the elimination in 2007 of the unjust mandate imposed by the United States in the defunct UN Commission on Human Rights , allowed Cuba to deepen its traditional cooperation in this field, and also announced that next week the Cuban government will invite the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak , to visit the island in 2009.

Another announcement made by the FM was that Cuba will ratify the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, noting that in the last 50 years there has not been a single disappeared, tortured or extra-judicially executed person.

Cuba is a signatory of the main 41 treaties or covenants for the most important human rights, as well as the covenants against racism,
torture, Children rights, women rights and handicapped people, recalled Perez Roque.

Further information on the Human Rights guaranteed to Cubans can be found on the Cuban Foreign Ministry's website below:

Cuban Foreign Ministry Website