[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 62 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 62

Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the human rights situation 
                                in Cuba.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 22, 2001

Mr. Lieberman (for himself, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Graham, Mr. Kyl, Mr. Helms, 
 Mr. Ensign, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Torricelli, Mr. 
  Smith of New Hampshire, Mr. Sessions, Mr. DeWine, and Mr. Santorum) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                          on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the human rights situation 
                                in Cuba.

Whereas, according to the Department of State and international human rights 
        organizations, the Cuban government continues to commit widespread and 
        well-documented human rights violations against the Cuban people and to 
        detain hundreds more as political prisoners;
Whereas the Castro regime systematically violates all of the fundamental civil 
        and political rights of the Cuban people, denying freedoms of speech, 
        press, assembly, movement, religion, and association, the right to 
        change their government, and the right to due process and fair trials;
Whereas, in law and in practice, the Cuban government restricts the freedom of 
        religion of the Cuban people and engages in efforts to control and 
        monitor religious institutions through surveillance, infiltration, 
        evictions, restrictions on access to computer and communication 
        equipment, and harassment of religious professionals and lay persons;
Whereas the totalitarian regime of Fidel Castro actively suppresses all peaceful 
        opposition and dissent by the Cuban people using undercover agents, 
        informers, rapid response brigades, Committees for the Defense of the 
        Revolution, surveillance, phone tapping, intimidation, defamation, 
        arbitrary detention, house arrest, arbitrary searches, evictions, travel 
        restrictions, politically motivated dismissals from employment, and 
        forced exile;
Whereas workers' rights are effectively denied by a system in which foreign 
        investors are forced to contract labor from the Cuban government and to 
        pay the regime in hard currency knowing that the regime will pay less 
        than 5 percent of these wages in local currency to the workers 
        themselves;
Whereas these abuses by the Cuban government violate internationally accepted 
        norms of conduct;
Whereas the Senate is mindful of the admonishment of President Ernesto Zedillo 
        of Mexico during the last Ibero-American Summit in Havana, Cuba, that 
        ``[t]here can be no sovereign nations without free men and women. Men 
        and women who can freely exercise their essential freedoms: freedom of 
        thought and opinion, freedom of participation, freedom of dissent, 
        freedom of decision.'';
Whereas President Vaclav Havel, an essential figure in the Czech Republic's 
        transition to democracy, has counseled that ``[w]e thus know that by 
        voicing open criticism of undemocratic conditions in Cuba, we encourage 
        all the brave Cubans who endure persecution and years of prison for 
        their loyalty to the ideals of freedom and human dignity'';
Whereas former President Lech Walesa, leader of the Polish solidarity movement, 
        has urged the world to ``mobilize its resources, just as was done in 
        support of Polish Solidarnosc and the Polish workers, to express their 
        support for Cuban workers and to monitor labor rights'' in Cuba;
Whereas efforts to document, expose, and address human rights abuses in Cuba are 
        complicated by the fact that the Cuban government continues to deny 
        international human rights and humanitarian monitors access to the 
        country;
Whereas Pax Christi further reports (September 2000) that these efforts are 
        complicated because ``a conspiracy of silence has fallen over Cuba'' in 
        which diplomats and entrepreneurs refuse even to discuss labor rights 
        and other human rights issues in Cuba, some ``for fear of endangering 
        the relations with the Cuban government'', and businessmen investing in 
        Cuba ``openly declare that the theme of human rights was not of their 
        concern'';
Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 
        Geneva provides an excellent forum to spotlight human rights and 
        expressing international support for improved human rights performance 
        in Cuba and elsewhere;
Whereas the goal of United States policy in Cuba is to promote a peaceful 
        transition to democracy through an active policy of assisting the 
        peaceful forces of change on the island;
Whereas the United States may provide assistance through appropriate 
        nongovernmental organizations to help individuals and organizations to 
        promote nonviolent democratic change and promote respect for human 
        rights in Cuba; and
Whereas the President is authorized to engage in democracy-building efforts in 
        Cuba, including the provision of (1) publications and other 
        informational materials on transitions to democracy, human rights, and 
        market economies to independent groups in Cuba; (2) humanitarian 
        assistance to victims of political repression and their families; (3) 
        support for democratic and human rights groups in Cuba; and (4) support 
        for visits and permanent deployment of democratic and international 
        human rights monitors in Cuba: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That (a) the Senate condemns the repressive and 
totalitarian actions of the Cuban government against the Cuban people.
    (b) It is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the President should establish an action-oriented 
        policy of directly assisting the Cuban people and independent 
        organizations to strengthen the forces of change and to improve 
        human rights in Cuba;
            (2) such policy should be modeled on the bipartisan United 
        States support for the Polish Solidarity (Solidarnosc) movement 
        under former President Ronald Reagan and involving United 
        States trade unions; and
            (3) the President should make all efforts necessary at the 
        meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva 
        in 2001 to obtain the passage by the Commission of a resolution 
        condemning the Cuban government for its human rights abuses, 
        and to secure the appointment of a Special Rapporteur for Cuba.
    Sec. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy of this 
resolution to the President.
                                 <all>