US embassy cable - 05OTTAWA851

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-1, CHR-61, 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. 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
 
DICKSON