( dpa ) - Cuba Thursday signed key international documents that, if implemented fully, would give its people civil and political rights as well as economic and cultural rights, less than one week after Raul Castro officially took over the country's leadership from his brother Fidel.
The significance of Cuba's joining the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was heralded by Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque as the victory of a sovereign nation.
But Perez Roque also said "nothing has changed" when asked whether the government under Raul Castro would implement provisions of the covenants that were opposed by his brother Fidel.
"The act of signing both covenants responds to a sovereign decision of the Cuban government," Perez Roque said at UN headquarters in New York after the signing ceremony.
" Cuba has never acted nor will act under pressure," he said, declaring that the United States can no longer accuse Cuba of human rights abuses.
"This decision has been taken now that the selective and unjust mandate against Cuba imposed by the brutal pressure and blackmail carried out by the United States in the former Human Rights Commission has been clearly defeated, representing a historic victory for the Cuban people," he said.
Perez Roque was referring to the defunct commission in Geneva, a body criticized by several Western nations for failing to uphold its mandate as the protector of human rights. The US used that body to repeatedly condemn Havana.
The commission was replaced two years ago by the Human Rights Council, which has been boycotted by the US government for failing to implement enough reforms. Cuba is a member of the council and currently escapes the harsh treatment inflicted by the US in the past.
Perez Roque called on the US to unconditionally lift the decades-old economic blockade against Cuba, saying that Cuba under the leadership of Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, granted the Cuban people all the rights contained in the two covenants.
"The constitution of the Republic (of Cuba) and the national legislation enshrine the rights protected in these covenants," he said.
"The policies and programmes carried out by the state guarantee the effective realization and protection of these rights for all Cubans."
But he warned: "As far as the scope and application of several of the elements contained in these international instruments, Cuba will register those reservations or interpretive declarations it considers relevant."
Many countries have signed the two covenants, but selectively implement the provisions as they see fit under domestic conditions.
Fidel Castro opposed as recently as December the right to form labour and trade unions, saying that granting workers that right would amount to "subversive and destabilization" of Cuba and that unions were an instrument for "imperialism."
Fidel also opposed private education, linking it to privatized schools in Western nations, which favour the privileged classes.
