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.

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DICKSON