ANYTHING BUT HUMAN RIGHTS: US POLICY TOWARDS CUBA UNDER HELMS-BURTON

If you have found this article useful and you think it is important that researchers across the world have access, please consider donating, to ensure that this valuable collection remains Open Access.

International Journal of Cuban Studies is published by Pluto Journals, an Open Access publisher. This means that everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles from our international collection of social science journals. Furthermore Pluto Journals authors don’t pay article processing charges (APCs).

scite_

International Journal of Cuban Studies

Volume 2, Issue 3/4

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

ANYTHING BUT HUMAN RIGHTS: US POLICY TOWARDS CUBA UNDER HELMS-BURTON

research-article

Author(s): Arturo López-Levy , Harlan S. Abrahams

Publication date (Print): 1 October 2010

Publication date (Print): 1 December 2010

Journal: International Journal of Cuban Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Bookmark

Abstract

This article analyses the Human Rights dimension of US policy through the case study of US policy toward Cuba and concludes that US policy toward Cuba is not designed to further Human Rights. The article evaluates US policy toward Cuba by comparing and contrasting it with the principal theories and international norms of Human Rights and Human Rights foreign policy (Donnelly, Forsythe, and Koh). It also compares US policy toward Cuba with some concrete cases of US policies in which Human Rights improvements occurred. In terms of methods and conceptions, the paper reviews the 'all-or-nothing' approach and priorities of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996 (Helms-Burton law) and its implementation. The paper concludes that the Human Rights component of US policy toward Cuba is minimal at best. US policy toward Cuba was not conceived to improve Human Rights on the island but to appease domestic constituencies through an agenda of property claims and Cold War anticommunist symbolism.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (jstor): intejcubastud

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50005551

Title: International Journal of Cuban Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 17563461

Publication date (Print): 1 October 2010

Publication date (Print): 1 December 2010

Volume: 2

Issue: 3/4

Pages: 315-334

Article

DOI: 10.2307/41945910

SO-VID: a0c059a0-dcfc-4929-b376-89d4bcbd5a83

License:

All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Notes

Jack Donnelly and Debra Liang-Fenton, 'Introduction', in Debra Liang-Fenton (ed.) Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy (Washington: US Institute of Peace, 2004), p. 5.
Jack Donnelly, The Universal Declaration Model of Human Rights: A Liberal Defense', Human Rights Working Papers, #12, 2001, http://www.du.edu/humanrights/ workingpapers/index.html, p. 1. Johannes Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a Norm for Societies in Transition', reprinted in Shale Horowitz and Albrecht Schnabel (eds) Human Rights and Societies in Transition (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2004).
Lisa Weinmann, 'Washington's Irrational Cuba Policy', World Policy Journal 21(1) Spring 2004: 22.
Daryl Glaser, 'Does Hypocrisy Matter? The Case of US Foreign Policy', Review of International Studies 32(2) 2006, Cambridge University Press.
International Court of Justice Reports of Judgements, Advisory Opinions and Orders, 1986, 14, p. 135.
General Comment #8 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the UN (1997). Joy Gordon, 'A Peaceful, Silent, Deadly Remedy: The Ethics of Economic Sanctions', Ethics and International Affairs 13 (1999): 23, George Lopez, 'More Ethical Than Not: Sanctions as Surgical Tools', Ethics and International Affairs 13 (1999): 143.
Susan Burgerman, 'First Do No Harm: U.S. Foreign Policy and Respect for Human Rights in El Salvador and Guatemala, 1980-96', in Liang-Fenton (ed.) Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy, p. 293.
The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996, Dianne Rennack and Mark Sullivan, U.S.-Cuban Relations: An Analytic Compendium of U.S. Policies, Laws & Regulations (Washington DC: The Atlantic Council of the United States), pp. 85-131.
A.F. Lowenfeld, 'Congress and Cuba: The Helms-Burton Act', American Journal of International Law 90 (1996): 419-34.
J. Kirkpatrick, 'Dictatorships and Double Standards', Commentary 68(5) November 1979: 34-45.
Adolfo Franco, Assistant Administrator for Latin America of USAID, at the US-Cuba seminar held at the University of Miami in October 2003. http://www.usaid.gov/press/speeches/2003/sp0314004.htlm. Frank Calzon, testimony before the Committee on International Relations, US House of Representatives, 16 April 2003, at http:// www.house.gov/international_relations/10 8/calz0416.htm.
Tom Malinowski, 'Cuba: Human Rights and U.S. Policy', Senate Committee on Finance, 4 September 2003, at http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/cuba090403-tst. htm.
Frederick Abbott, Christine Breining-Kauffman, and Thomas Cottier, International Trade and Human Rights: Foundations and Conceptual Issues (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006).
David Baldwin, 'The Sanctions Debate and the Logics of Choice', International Security 24(3) Winter 1999-2000: 80-117; Richard Haass, 'Sanctioning Madness', Foreign Affairs, 1997, pp. 74-85. Jesse Helms, 'What Sanctions Epidemic?' Foreign Affairs, Jan-Feb 1999.
H. Boekle, 'Western States, the U.N Commission on Human Rights and the "1235 Procedure": the "Question of Bias" Revisited', Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 13(4) 1995: 385, 389 n.71.
Rosemary Foot, Rights Beyond Borders (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 95.
Malinowski, 'Cuba: Human Rights and U.S. Policy'.
Pauline Baker, 'Getting it Right: U.S. Policy in South Africa', in Liang-Fenton (ed.) Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy, pp. 85-112; Princeton Lyman, Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa's Transition to Democracy (Washington: US Institute of Peace Press, 2002). Audie Klotz, 'Norms Recon- stituting Interests: Global Racial Equality and U.S. Sanctions against South Africa', International Organization 49(3) Summer 1995.
Patrick Haney and Walt Vanderbush, 'The Role of Ethnic Interest Groups in U.S. Foreign Policy: The Case of the Cuban American National Foundation', International Studies Quarterly (1999): 43; Philip Brenner, Patrick Haney, and Walter Vanderbush, 'Intermestic Interests and U.S. Policy Toward Cuba', in Eugene Wittkopf and James McCormick (eds) The Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004).
Roberta Cohen, 'The People's Republic of China: The Human Rights Exception', Human Rights Quarterly (November 1987): 468 n.78.
Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General of the Administration that first imposed the travel ban, considered that such a measure could exist only temporarily because it conflicted with the 'libertarian' ideals of the American people. His memo to Dean Rusk on this subject was accessed at: http://www.gwu.edu/-nsarchiv/NSAEBB/ NSAEBB158/19631212.pdf.
Hoover Institution Report by Roger Fontaine and William Radcliff, 'Strategic Flip-Flop in the Caribbean' (Hoover Institution Press, 2000).
A. Bardach and L. Rohter, 'Key Cuban foe claims exiles' backing', New York Times, 12 July 1998; A. Bardach and L. Rohter, 'Life in the shadows, trying to bring down Castro', New York Times, 13 July 1998.
F. Calzon, 'Here is what awaits Elian', Miami Herald, 7 December 1999. Centre for a Free Cuba, 'U.S.-Cuba Policy Dilemmas: How to Hasten the Transition', Washington 2004 at www.cubacentre.org.
http:// ca-dl.org/onu.htm.
Liang-Fenton and Donnelly, 'Introduction', in Liang-Fenton (ed.) Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy.
Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2003).
D'Estefano, 'Cuarenta Años de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos', Movimiento Cubano Por la Paz, Havana, 1988.
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/country/cuba/.
Pauline Baker, The United States and South Africa: Persuasion and Coercion', in Richard Haass (ed.) Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions and Foreign Policy (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2000).
2004 and 2006 Reports of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba in http:// www.cafc.gov/rpt/.
M.E. Sarotte, Dealing with the Devil: East Germany, Détente, and Ostpolitik 1969-1973 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001). Daniel C. Thomas, The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights and the Demise of Communism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
Harry Harding, 'Breaking the Impasse over Human Rights', in Ezra Vogel (ed.) Living with China: U.S. /China Relations in the Twenty-First Century (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997).
Amnesty International, 'Cuba: Questions and Answers on the Work of Amnesty International' (AI index: AMR 25/003/2002), July 2002; 'Cuba: Short Term Detentions and Harassment of Dissidents' (AI index: AMR 25/04/00), March 2000; 'Cuba: "Essential Measures"? Human Rights Crackdown in the Name of Security' (AI Index: AMR 25/017/2003). See also Human Rights Watch, Tom Malinowski, 'Cuba: Human Rights and U.S. Policy', in www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/cuba090403-tst.htm.
Mary Beth Warner, 'Cuba vote signals change for Cuban American-American lobby', 14 June 2000, Reuters News Service.
Madeleine Albright, Memo to the President Elect (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 176.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Jack Donnelly and Debra Liang-Fenton, 'Introduction', in Debra Liang-Fenton (ed.) Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy (Washington: US Institute of Peace, 2004), p. 5.

[2] Jack Donnelly, The Universal Declaration Model of Human Rights: A Liberal Defense', Human Rights Working Papers, #12, 2001, http://www.du.edu/humanrights/ workingpapers/index.html, p. 1. Johannes Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a Norm for Societies in Transition', reprinted in Shale Horowitz and Albrecht Schnabel (eds) Human Rights and Societies in Transition (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2004).

[3] Lisa Weinmann, 'Washington's Irrational Cuba Policy', World Policy Journal 21(1) Spring 2004: 22.

[4] Daryl Glaser, 'Does Hypocrisy Matter? The Case of US Foreign Policy', Review of International Studies 32(2) 2006, Cambridge University Press.

[5] International Court of Justice Reports of Judgements, Advisory Opinions and Orders, 1986, 14, p. 135.

[6] General Comment #8 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the UN (1997). Joy Gordon, 'A Peaceful, Silent, Deadly Remedy: The Ethics of Economic Sanctions', Ethics and International Affairs 13 (1999): 23, George Lopez, 'More Ethical Than Not: Sanctions as Surgical Tools', Ethics and International Affairs 13 (1999): 143.

[7] Susan Burgerman, 'First Do No Harm: U.S. Foreign Policy and Respect for Human Rights in El Salvador and Guatemala, 1980-96', in Liang-Fenton (ed.) Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy, p. 293.

[8] The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996, Dianne Rennack and Mark Sullivan, U.S.-Cuban Relations: An Analytic Compendium of U.S. Policies, Laws & Regulations (Washington DC: The Atlantic Council of the United States), pp. 85-131.

[9] A.F. Lowenfeld, 'Congress and Cuba: The Helms-Burton Act', American Journal of International Law 90 (1996): 419-34.

[10] J. Kirkpatrick, 'Dictatorships and Double Standards', Commentary 68(5) November 1979: 34-45.

[11] Adolfo Franco, Assistant Administrator for Latin America of USAID, at the US-Cuba seminar held at the University of Miami in October 2003. http://www.usaid.gov/press/speeches/2003/sp0314004.htlm. Frank Calzon, testimony before the Committee on International Relations, US House of Representatives, 16 April 2003, at http:// www.house.gov/international_relations/10 8/calz0416.htm.

[12] Tom Malinowski, 'Cuba: Human Rights and U.S. Policy', Senate Committee on Finance, 4 September 2003, at http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/cuba090403-tst. htm.

[13] Frederick Abbott, Christine Breining-Kauffman, and Thomas Cottier, International Trade and Human Rights: Foundations and Conceptual Issues (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006).

[14] David Baldwin, 'The Sanctions Debate and the Logics of Choice', International Security 24(3) Winter 1999-2000: 80-117; Richard Haass, 'Sanctioning Madness', Foreign Affairs, 1997, pp. 74-85. Jesse Helms, 'What Sanctions Epidemic?' Foreign Affairs, Jan-Feb 1999.

[15] H. Boekle, 'Western States, the U.N Commission on Human Rights and the "1235 Procedure": the "Question of Bias" Revisited', Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 13(4) 1995: 385, 389 n.71.

[16] Rosemary Foot, Rights Beyond Borders (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 95.

[17] Malinowski, 'Cuba: Human Rights and U.S. Policy'.

[18] Pauline Baker, 'Getting it Right: U.S. Policy in South Africa', in Liang-Fenton (ed.) Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy, pp. 85-112; Princeton Lyman, Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa's Transition to Democracy (Washington: US Institute of Peace Press, 2002). Audie Klotz, 'Norms Recon- stituting Interests: Global Racial Equality and U.S. Sanctions against South Africa', International Organization 49(3) Summer 1995.

[19] Patrick Haney and Walt Vanderbush, 'The Role of Ethnic Interest Groups in U.S. Foreign Policy: The Case of the Cuban American National Foundation', International Studies Quarterly (1999): 43; Philip Brenner, Patrick Haney, and Walter Vanderbush, 'Intermestic Interests and U.S. Policy Toward Cuba', in Eugene Wittkopf and James McCormick (eds) The Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004).

[20] Roberta Cohen, 'The People's Republic of China: The Human Rights Exception', Human Rights Quarterly (November 1987): 468 n.78.

[21] Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General of the Administration that first imposed the travel ban, considered that such a measure could exist only temporarily because it conflicted with the 'libertarian' ideals of the American people. His memo to Dean Rusk on this subject was accessed at: http://www.gwu.edu/-nsarchiv/NSAEBB/ NSAEBB158/19631212.pdf.

[22] Hoover Institution Report by Roger Fontaine and William Radcliff, 'Strategic Flip-Flop in the Caribbean' (Hoover Institution Press, 2000).

[23] A. Bardach and L. Rohter, 'Key Cuban foe claims exiles' backing', New York Times, 12 July 1998; A. Bardach and L. Rohter, 'Life in the shadows, trying to bring down Castro', New York Times, 13 July 1998.

[24] F. Calzon, 'Here is what awaits Elian', Miami Herald, 7 December 1999. Centre for a Free Cuba, 'U.S.-Cuba Policy Dilemmas: How to Hasten the Transition', Washington 2004 at www.cubacentre.org.

[25] http:// ca-dl.org/onu.htm.

[26] Liang-Fenton and Donnelly, 'Introduction', in Liang-Fenton (ed.) Implementing U.S. Human Rights Policy.

[27] Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2003).

[28] D'Estefano, 'Cuarenta Años de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos', Movimiento Cubano Por la Paz, Havana, 1988.

[29] http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/country/cuba/.

[30] Pauline Baker, The United States and South Africa: Persuasion and Coercion', in Richard Haass (ed.) Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions and Foreign Policy (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2000).

[31] 2004 and 2006 Reports of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba in http:// www.cafc.gov/rpt/.

[32] M.E. Sarotte, Dealing with the Devil: East Germany, Détente, and Ostpolitik 1969-1973 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001). Daniel C. Thomas, The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights and the Demise of Communism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).

[33] Harry Harding, 'Breaking the Impasse over Human Rights', in Ezra Vogel (ed.) Living with China: U.S. /China Relations in the Twenty-First Century (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997).

[34] Amnesty International, 'Cuba: Questions and Answers on the Work of Amnesty International' (AI index: AMR 25/003/2002), July 2002; 'Cuba: Short Term Detentions and Harassment of Dissidents' (AI index: AMR 25/04/00), March 2000; 'Cuba: "Essential Measures"? Human Rights Crackdown in the Name of Security' (AI Index: AMR 25/017/2003). See also Human Rights Watch, Tom Malinowski, 'Cuba: Human Rights and U.S. Policy', in www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/cuba090403-tst.htm.

[35] Mary Beth Warner, 'Cuba vote signals change for Cuban American-American lobby', 14 June 2000, Reuters News Service.

[36] Madeleine Albright, Memo to the President Elect (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 176.

International Journal of Cuban Studies

ANYTHING BUT HUMAN RIGHTS: US POLICY TOWARDS CUBA UNDER HELMS-BURTON

Journal

Article

History

Related

Categories

Comment on this article