New York, 9 December 2019. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, 1959, sports became a right for all the Cuban people, in the best interest of their quality of life. Mass participation in sports from that date to the present day is one of the main achievements of our Revolution, under the leadership of its foremost architect, Commander Fidel Castro Ruz, stated today Yillianne Sánchez Rodríguez, Diplomatic Attaché of the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations, at the debate on UN agenda item 11: "Sport for development and peace: building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal.”
The representative of the island showed how in Cuba --despite the shortcomings and obstacles imposed by the U.S. blockade on the full exercise of sport activity--, the practice of sports is a constitutional right, enshrined in the Magna Carta, recently approved by the National Assembly of the People's Power and ratified in a popular referendum on 24 February 2019.
Sánchez Rodríguez, who referred to sport as a fundamental right for all and a determining factor for development and peace, called for ensuring that the mechanisms and institutions for the exercise of this right exist and function, without discrimination or limitations. She pointed out that, although progress has been made on the issue, much remains to be done to systematically guarantee and ensure access to disadvantaged groups, such as children, women, senior citizens and people with disabilities.
In this context, she rejected attempts to politicize sport, as well as actions aiming at the theft of sport talents, particularly of athletes from developing countries.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations