[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H3411]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        REMOVE CUBA FROM UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

  (Mr. FOLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FOLEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to pass 
a very important resolution I will be introducing today. My bill 
expresses the sense of the House that the United Nations must call for 
the U.N. to remove Cuba from the United Nations Human Rights 
Commission.
  The U.N. Human Rights Commission is the primary world body 
responsible for protecting the inalienable rights of all people to live 
free from harm and oppression. However, with some of the world's most 
egregious human rights violators on the panel, like Libya and Cuba, it 
is unlikely that it can effectively carry out its mission.
  Whether it is Saddam Hussein or Fidel Castro, the U.N. has repeatedly 
protected tyrants, torturers, and murderers. Allowing Cuba to stay on 
the Human Rights Commission is like honoring Saddam Hussein with the 
Nobel Peace Prize.
  Today I was shocked to learn that Cuba once again was put on the 
panel. For over 40 years Fidel Castro has time and time again shown his 
reprehensible disregard for the safety and welfare of his own people. 
His tyrannical regime has forced countless innocent people to risk 
their lives to seek the shores of the United States. But what is worse 
is that these people will go to the furthest of extremes to hurt their 
own people.

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