CANADA: CHR-61 RESOLUTION ON CUBA

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 000851 SIPDIS STATE FOR DRL/MLA AND WHA/CAN E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/22/2015 TAGS: PHUM CU CA CHR CHR FAC SUBJECT: CANADA: CHR-61 RESOLUTION ON CUBA REF: STATE 044494 Classified By: POL M/C BRIAN FLORA, REASON 1.4 (B) ¶1. (C) Poloff delivered the reftel demarche concerning the draft of a resolution on Cuba that the U.S. intends to introduce at the 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR-61),to Pamela Moore, human rights officer at Foreign Affairs Canada (FAC),on March 14. Moore thanked us for the demarche and the opportunity to review the draft resolution, and indicated that she would coordinate the demarche with her FAC colleagues in Ottawa, Geneva and Havana, and would notify poloff of Canada's position. ¶2. (C) On March 21, Moore advised that Canada supported the resolution, and was prepared to co-sponsor at CHR-61. The one concern that Moore indicated that FAC had with the proposed resolution was the listing of all of the previous resolutions on Cuba in the preamble text. According to Moore, Canada believes this might be troublesome, since some of the texts of the older resolutions were very broad, and could prompt renewed debate at CHR-61. Continuing, she wondered if passage of a resolution at CHR-61 might be facilitated if the text only recalled the previous two resolutions (2002 and 2004) on Cuba passed at the CHR, since those resolutions were narrower in scope. ¶3. (C) Moore reiterated that Canada opposes the use of no-action votes when considering country-specific resolutions. Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa DICKSON