H. Res. 91
In the House of Representatives, U.S.,
April 3, 2001.
Whereas, according to the Department of State and inter-
national human rights organizations, the Government of
Cuba continues to commit widespread and well-docu-
mented 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 peo-
ple, denying freedoms of speech, press, assembly, move-
ment, 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 Government of Cuba re-
stricts the freedom of religion of the Cuban people and
engages in efforts to control and monitor religious insti-
tutions through surveillance, infiltration, evictions, re-
strictions on access to computer and communication
equipment, and harassment of religious professionals and
lay persons;
Whereas the totalitarian regime of Fidel Castro actively sup-
presses 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, ar-
bitrary detention, house arrest, arbitrary searches, evic-
•HRES 91 EH
tions, 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 Government of Cuba 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 Government of Cuba violate
internationally accepted norms of conduct;
Whereas the House of Representatives is mindful of the ad-
monishment of former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo
during the last Ibero-American Summit in Havana,
Cuba, that ‘‘[t]here can be no sovereign nations without
free men and women [. . . m]en and women who can free-
ly 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 dig-
nity’’;
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 sup-
port for Cuban workers and to monitor labor rights’’ in
Cuba;
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Whereas efforts to document, expose, and address human
rights abuses in Cuba are complicated by the fact that
the Government of Cuba continues to deny international
human rights and humanitarian monitors access to the
country;
Whereas Pax Christi further reports 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 rela-
tions with the Cuban government’’, and businessmen in-
vesting in Cuba ‘‘openly declare that the theme of human
rights was not of their concern’’;
Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commis-
sion on Human Rights in Geneva provides an excellent
forum to spotlight human rights and expressing inter-
national support for improved human rights performance
in Cuba and elsewhere;
Whereas the goal of United States policy in Cuba is to pro-
mote a peaceful transition to democracy through an ac-
tive policy of assisting the forces of change on the island;
Whereas the United States may provide assistance through
appropriate nongovernmental organizations to help indi-
viduals and organizations to promote nonviolent demo-
cratic 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 transi-
tions to democracy, human rights, and market economies
to independent groups in Cuba, (2) humanitarian assist-
•HRES 91 EH
ance 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 deploy-
ment of democratic and international human rights mon-
itors in Cuba: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That—
(1) the House of Representatives condemns the re-
pressive and totalitarian actions of the Government of
Cuba against the Cuban people; and
(2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that the President—
(A) should have an action-oriented policy of di-
rectly assisting the Cuban people and independent
organizations, modeled on United States support
under former President Ronald Reagan, including
support by United States trade unions, for Poland’s
Solidarity movement (‘‘Solidarnosc’’), to strengthen
the forces of change and to improve human rights
within Cuba; and
(B) should make all efforts necessary at the
meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Com-
mission in Geneva in 2001 to obtain the passage by
the Commission of a resolution condemning the
Government of Cuba for its human rights abuses,
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and to secure the appointment of a Special
Rapporteur for Cuba.
Attest:
Clerk.