Speech by the Ambassador Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, the Permanent Representative of Cuba in Geneva, at the General Segment of the 37th regular session of the Human Rights Council.
Geneva, February 28, 2018.
Mr. President:
In the year in which we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th of the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action, the promotion and protection of the rights of millions of people in the world, including in highly developed countries, is still a chimera.
In many latitudes, even in those where governments have all the resources and means necessary to avoid it, hunger and malnutrition; marginalization and social exclusion; racism and racial discrimination, intolerance and hate speech and xenophobia; the philosophy of plunder, the shameful opulence of the rich and the lacerating poverty of those who have nothing, proliferate.
The contradictions caused by an unjust and morally unsustainable international economic order, whose patterns of production and consumption are irrational, continue to worsen. Its consequences have a negative impact on the possibilities of developing countries to advance in the promotion and protection of all human rights for all.
How can we accept that in the world today, with the resources and technologies at our disposal, there are still 793 million people facing hunger every day? Or that 155 million children under 5 are stunted and 52 million are underweight for their age?1 How to explain the universal recognition of human rights to these millions of people?
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1 Source of the data in the paragraph: Report on Compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals 2017, prepared by the United Nations.
All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent, and are related to each other. For this reason, the protection of the right to life should not be limited only to the recognition of the dignity and value of human life, as established in international instruments and domestic legal systems. In addition, sufficient guarantees and practical measures are required for the effective exercise of this right. Because of this, the high level of citizen insecurity in some countries, such as in the United States, where it is very easy to obtain a firearm, and where there is a high number of violent crimes, a disproportionate number of firearms in the hands of the civilian population and a large number of people killed because of incidents with these weapons is worrying.
The hegemonic pretensions of some powers and their direct or covert aggressions, foreign occupation, the fostering of internal conflicts, as well as legitimately constituted regime change agendas, deny the noble ideal of achieving ever higher levels of human rights realization, particularly the right of peoples to self-determination.
Mr. President:
Cuba is firmly committed to efforts to build a world order in which respect for the independence and sovereignty of each State prevails, and in which war and the threat or use of force are banished, in accordance with the postulates of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace and the principles of International Law.
In that sense, we ratify our invariable solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We reject the unilateral coercive measures imposed against that brother country and the external interference against the Bolivarian and Chavez process, which threaten peace and dialogue among Venezuelans with destabilizing purposes and deliberately generate economic hardships for its population.
We denounce the attempts to isolate, singularize and exclude Venezuela. We demand absolute respect for the institutionality that the Venezuelan people have given to themselves, through the participation in the most recent democratic processes that have taken place in that country.
We also ratify our deep concern and rejection of the unilateral decision of the United States to recognize the city of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. This measure further exacerbates tensions in the area and removes the possibility of any effort aimed at resuming peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
We reaffirm the unrestricted support for the search for a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the conflict, based on the creation of two States, which ensures the exercise of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and to have an independent State within the pre-1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem.
We also reaffirm our support for the search for a peaceful and negotiated solution and respect for the territorial integrity of Syria.
Mr. President:
For Cuba, the promotion and protection of human rights continues to be a priority. Achieving greater social justice and well-being for all our people, in the exercise of the broadest liberties recognized by the Constitution and the laws, is one of the objectives pursued by the ongoing process of updating the Cuban economic and social development model.
As part of this process, the legal and institutional framework that underpins our policies, programs and efforts aimed at promoting and protecting the rights of our people and guaranteeing their legitimate exercise has continued to be strengthened.
Progress has also been made in strengthening the paths, mechanisms and sustainability of resources available to the population to ensure the enjoyment of their human rights.
Issues such as access to higher quality health and education services, greater protection and social assistance, food security and sustainable access to drinking water, among others, are some of the priorities of the authorities, both at the national and local levels.
The priority that is granted to ensure the best possible quality of life for our people, based on the strong political will to spare no effort or expense in achieving that goal, allowed Cuba in 2017, for example, to obtain the children's lowest mortality rate in its history, 4 per thousand live births.
This result, which is higher than that registered by many developed countries, has been possible thanks to the work of the Revolution, which constitutes the fundamental guarantee for the promotion, protection and realization of the human rights of Cubans; and the support and active participation of the people.
To obtain these results, Cuba has not only had to overcome its status as a small developing country, without significant economic resources or abundant natural resources. It has also been necessary to avoid the negative consequences of the genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States. The blockade, which continues to be in force and intensifies, is the main obstacle to the country's development, is a flagrant violation of the human rights of the Cuban people, and undermines the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and International Law.
Mr. President:
Cuba maintains its cooperation and interaction with the United Nations human rights procedures and mechanisms that have universal application, on a non-discriminatory basis.
The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and the Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity, visited the country in 2017, at the invitation of the Cuban government.
We have consolidated a positive dialogue with the bodies created under the international human rights treaties. In 2017 we defended the initial report before the Committee against Forced Disappearance; and this year we will defend the periodic report before the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
We continue to strengthen relations of cooperation and exchange with the International Committee of the Red Cross. A few days ago we were visited by the Secretary General of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
In this spirit of cooperation, and to continue sharing experiences and exchanging good practices, Cuba will be present, next May, before the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). We will go to the UPR willing to engage in constructive and respectful dialogue, attached to the truth.
Mr. President:
It is essential to preserve this body from the selective, discriminatory and politically motivated practices that led to the discrediting and disappearance of the Human Rights Commission. Punitive approaches against countries, which we observe are advancing dangerously, do not improve the human rights situation on the ground. On the contrary, they stir up politicization and polarization.
It will not be the unilateral approaches or attitudes that will achieve greater effectiveness in the work of the Council, nor the manipulation of concepts and principles, or the use of the issue of human rights to justify interventionist agendas, based on hegemonic pretensions, which have nothing to do with a genuine concern for the realization of human rights.
The intention to use this body to try to legitimize the action of the Security Council against countries that do not constitute a threat to international peace and security is disturbing and dangerous. We reject the recent actions of the Security Council in the field of human rights, encroaching on the mandates that correspond to the General Assembly or this Council itself.
We share the need to make some adjustments in the functioning of the Council. But this should not be translated into a reform process or an attempt to modify the postulates of resolution 60/251. The founding principles of this forum must be preserved.
Mr. President:
Cuba will continue to advocate for dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights, and for the recognition and respect for differences.
We will continue to defend the right of each people to determine their own political system and to choose the path of their economic and social development, in the exercise of self-determination.
We will continue advancing towards the strengthening of our development model and towards higher levels of promotion and protection of all human rights, based on the thought of José Martí, endorsed in our Constitution, which states: "I want the primary law of our Republic to be the devotion [culto] of Cubans to the full dignity of man."
Thank you very much.