“If the Human Rights Council is ever to achieve the goals Kofi Annan envisaged for it, all countries must take a clear stand on the side of repressed people around the world who live without freedom,” said Ambassador John Rood in a letter to the press on Thursday. “If the United Nations is to be relevant and effective in promoting universal human rights, its member nations must have the courage to promote their own values, as reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I know the people of the Bahamas hold these rights dear, just as we in the United States do. The United States has taken a public pledge to support only countries genuinely committed to these ideals; we hope in the future The Bahamas will join in this pledge and work with us to build a world where respect for mankind’s most fundamental rights is truly universal.”
On this score it would seem that the world can count the Bahamas out. At the moment, we are unsure – outside of commerce – to what ideals we are committed.
“In so far as we can,” Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell told the House in explaining the Bahamas’ UN vote to elect Cuba as one of the 47 members of the newly formed UN Human Rights Council, “it is better for us to stay out of the disagreements of neighbours. That is not in our interest to get involved in disputes which have nothing to do with us.”
What Mr Mitchell fails to appreciate is that we are not talking about the Bahamas’ right to trade or have diplomatic relations with Cuba, we are now viewing the world from a higher plane – from man’s God-given right to freedom; his right not to have the state’s cruel boot of repression on his neck.
And until Mr Mitchell can separate the principles of human rights from commercial intercourse, there never will be a meeting of the minds.
When it comes to human rights, how can Mr Mitchell say it “has nothing to do with us.” As long as we are a part of humanity, it has everything to do with us.
This was not Mr Mitchell’s thinking when he headed the Southern African Committee to help win the release of South ﾠAfrica’s Nelson Mandela. In those days he fully understood that mankind was diminished by Mr Mandela’s loss of freedom. He made South Africa’s repression of its native sons very much his personal affair. He felt fully justified in interfering in South Africa’s affairs to fight its human rights violations. But, obviously he does not feel the same way about Cuba. It would be interesting to know why.
And in reviewing his position, we would refer Mr Mitchell to poet John Donne’s lines that “no man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main… any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
The Bahamas sits too near Cuba and too many of our young people are attending and ﾠbeing brainwashed at their institutes of learning for us not to take a stand on what we believe to be every man’s inalienable rights. Bahamians would be well advised to remain awake and ever vigilant for fear Cuba teaches our government its meaning of human rights, as promised by their ambassador. At present we are reading out of different rule books.
It would seam that Mr Mitchell does not yet pick up on the subtle nuances of diplomatic language. The fact that the unspoken word is sometimes more important than the many words spoken.
It is true that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made it very clear that the Bahamas’ relationship with Cuba is a sovereign decision that only the Bahamas can make. But whenever we have read her statements we get a very clear picture that she, like Ambassador Rood and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, believe that this country has every right to trade with Cuba. However, trade has nothing to do with human rights. And to come down on the side of human rights – despite Cuba’s position – should in no way diminish our sovereignty.
Governor Bush was quite blunt. Although Mr Mitchell says that the Bahamas government would not do anything to jeopardise its close relationship with the United States, Mr Bush warned government not to presume too much on that friendship.
And Mr Rood has reminded this government that “the United States has taken a public pledge to support only countries genuinely committed to these ideals.”
Is the Bahamas genuinely committed? Its UN vote would suggest not.
Only time will tell what the US means by its public pledge.
Editorial from The Tribune
