Cuba assailed over human rights

Havana accuses the US of orchestrating the vote

The UN top human rights watchdog has called on Cuba to give its people more freedom in civil and political rights.

It also urged the island's Communist government to accept a visit by a UN representative.

The US government - using its preferred weapons of pressure and blackmail and with the humiliating servility of some governments in the region - seeks to execute a new manoeuvre against Cuba

Communist Party daily Granma

Cuba's human rights record has come under repeated scrutiny at the annual meetings of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

But this is the first time a resolution has been sponsored and supported by Latin American nations who were formerly Cuban allies.

The outcome prompted an angry and indignant response from the authorities in Cuba.

It is frequently criticised for repressing freedom of expression and jailing opposition activists.

'Judases'

The UN resolution, sponsored by Uruguay, was supported by 23 votes, with 21 against and nine abstentions.

The motion urged Cuba to put as much effort into strengthening human rights as it had into improving social policies and asked the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to send a representative to the island state to monitor its progress.

Regional votes

Those for: Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay

Abstained: Brazil and Ecuador

Voted against: Venezuela and Cuba

Ahead of the vote, Cuba called regional states supporting the motion "Judases" who lacked the moral authority to judge human rights in other countries.

In the region, only Venezuela sided with Cuba, its other support coming from Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

An official statement claimed Cuba had won a moral victory despite the vote.

Cuba also repeated its accusation that the US had pressured countries to vote for the resolution.

"The government of the US - using its preferred weapons of pressure and blackmail and with the humiliating servility of some governments in the region - seeks to execute a new manoeuvre against Cuba in Geneva", the Communist Party daily Granma said.

Censure by the UN body brings no penalties but draws attention to a country's rights record.

Cuba, a one-party state, insists it respects human rights better than most countries by guaranteeing its people broad social services such as free health care and education.

But the UN Human Rights Commission has now voted in 10 of the past 11 years to criticise Cuba's human rights record.

The US was unable to vote on the motion this year, having lost its seat on the commission in 2001.