Frankfurt am Main (25th of June 2010) – The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) criticized the election of the Cuban ambassador of Geneva, Rudolfo Reyes Rodríguez, to the Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Council as "absurd" and "mortifying for the fathers of the Declaration of Human Rights". There had been no free elections in Cuba since the Castro brothers had gained power for over 50 years. Despite the ruling communist party all other parties are forbidden. Strong censorship, persecution of dissidents, political prisoners, torture and prohibition of the citizens are the characteristics of this regime. By being represented by a representative of this system, the Human Rights Council affronts the victims of the Castro regime, says the ISHR.

The Speaker of the Board of the ISHR Martin Lessenthin clarifies: "A committee of the UN in which the countries that violate human rights have high positions is counterproductive and affronts the many victims of human rights crime in Cuba and the world. The Human Rights Council is now represented by a country that spurns the freedom of assembly and the freedom of opinion and press. Cuba is after China the country with the highest number of arrested journalists. As long as regime that are violating human rights can elect regime that are violating human rights on the top of the Human Rights Council, this committee is betraying the human rights and is calling itself into question."

Fatal human rights balance of the Castro regime

The propaganda of the Cuban government celebrated the election of Reyes, who will be part of the committee for 12 months, as "gratitude of the international community" on the Cuban government "for its outstanding efforts to protect the human rights of its own population and of the world". The International Society for Human Rights classifies the human rights balance of the Castro regime as "fatal" since 1959.

Over 200 political prisoners, the practically forbiddance of a political opposition, the total coordination of the media, the regular intimidation of human rights activists and dissidents by punching groups of the government, the non-existence of the freedom to travel and the total control of the people by the Cuban intelligence service make out of the island – despite the tropical idyll - one of the "most repressive countries worldwide".