US embassy cable - 05WELLINGTON222

C O N F I D E N T I A L WELLINGTON 000222 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR DRL, WHA/CCA, DRL/MLA, IO/SHA, AND EAP/ANZ 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2015 
TAGS: PHUM, CU, PREL, NZ, CHR-1, UNHRC-1 
SUBJECT: NEW ZEALAND ON CHR AND THE CHR RESOLUTION ON CUBA 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 42847 
 
     B. SECSTATE 44494 
 
Classified By: Political-Economic Counselor Katherine Hadda, 
for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). 
 
1.  (C) Acting Political-Economic Counselor provided Refs A 
and B demarches concerning the 61st Session of the UN 
Commission of Human Rights (CHR) and the importance of the 
U.S.-sponsored CHR Cuba resolution to Val Meyer, Deputy 
Director of the Human Rights Division, Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs and Trade (MFAT).  Meyer promised to discuss with 
Embassy officers New Zealand's position on all the CHR issues 
once her Ministry had had a chance to review our positions. 
 
2.  (C) On March 16, Pol-Econ Counselor followed up with 
Meyer and in particular stressed our desire that New Zealand 
co-sponsor the Cuba resolution.  Meyer said that a memo with 
recommendations for all CHR issues was being sent up to 
Foreign Minister Phil Goff for his approval.  While MFAT 
staff hoped for fast action on the memo, Meyer suspected the 
Minister would not approve it before the weekend as his 
schedule is very busy. 
 
3.  (C) Pol-Econ Counselor told Meyer that the United States 
hopes that New Zealand will co-sponsor the country-specific 
resolutions highlighted in reftels, and in particular the 
Cuba resolution.  She pointed out that New Zealand officials 
have in the past told us that they regret attempts by other 
countries to water down human rights resolution language. 
For similar reasons, our proposed resolution on Cuba has been 
crafted to avoid tussles over language and to instead draw 
attention to the CHR's repeated resolutions on Cuba and to 
invite the CHR itself to report on its findings regarding 
Cuba.  Pol-Econ Counselor told Myer that despite the long 
string of resolutions, human rights conditions in Cuba have 
slipped back over time, not improved.  Meyer suggested that, 
once Minister Goff's decision has been made, Pol-Econ 
Counselor meet with her and MFAT's Cuba specialists to 
discuss our views on Cuba. 
 
4.  (C) Comment: Based on Meyer's comments and New Zealand's 
positions on similar requests, we do not anticipate New 
Zealand will agree to co-sponsor the resolution on Cuba.  Nor 
is it likely that New Zealand will co-sponsor the resolution 
on Belarus or Burma.  In the past, New Zealand officials have 
disappointingly only chosen to co-sponsor human rights 
resolutions concerning countries with which New Zealand has 
diplomatic ties, on the grounds that New Zealand's influence 
will be greatest there.  The only exceptions have been cases 
such as Sudan, in which New Zealand perceives that there is 
widespread international agreement that violations are 
particularly egregious. 
Burnett