By Kira Salm
This Week, we are covering Humanitarian law and human rights through the Rwandan genocide, and our countries, mine Cuba different views on citizen’s rights.
Humanitarian law is a set of principles and international treaties outlining the conduct of nations engaged in warfare that aim to protect combatants and civilians affected by the conflicts.
International Humanitarian law failed in Rwanda through civilians and combatants being killed just because of the group they were part of and none of their actual actions. The US should have intervened through providing troops and at least slow down the killings or stop them entirely, so it did not become as bad as it was, but they did not because they did not care enough.
For Cuba, they have a commitment with the international committee of the Red Cross as part of its commitment to the international humanitarian law.
Even with the policies to protect life there has been something referred to as a genocide in Cuba. During a literacy campaign, some young activists were travelling out to rural communities to teach them to read and write and counterrevolutionaries, trained by the US, were sent to kidnap, torture and kill the young teachers and students, and they did kill some along with destroying crops.
Human rights in Cuba are represented through Cubans speaking of their great health and education system and making a case that they have a comprehensive and ample views on human rights like social and economic rights. It appears they are a part of the constitution, and it appears it follows the UN declaration of Human rights although the people in the West do not always see it that way.
Cuba does interpret Human rights differently than other countries, they see human rights more through the stereotypical Asian view on what is important human rights, social and economic rights. It was nice for them to point it out but there has also been people punished for using some speech which made them mentioning social rights stand out even more.
Sources:
Humanitarian Law | Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Radio Havana Cuba | Cuba ratifies commitment to International Humanitarian Law (radiohc.cu)
US Imperialism and Cuban Genocide: A Brief History – ANTICONQUISTA
Human rights and Cuba’s reasons – Global Learning (globallearning-cuba.com)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations