New York, 21 November 2019.Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child will not be enough if we continue to ignore the effects of climate change, if we do not change the unjust international economic order that makes the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and that will force 167 million children live in extreme poverty by 2030, highlighted Ambassador Ana Silvia Rodríguez Abascal, Deputy Permanent Representative and Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of Cuba to the United Nations, at the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Cuban representative explained how despite the genocidal economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba, the island -which ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 21 August 1991- has continued to draw up national plans, policies and programs by integrating the principles of the Convention. She added that this U.S. policy has a very negative impact on the availability of resources, food and goods to ensure better living conditions for our people, particularly hampering the provision of health, education and social assistance services to children and adolescents.
Thanks to those State plans and despite the blockade, Cuba shows achievements in the area of child protection such as: an infant mortality rate of 4.0 per thousand live births by the end of 2018; all Cuban children are vaccinated at birth against 13 communicable diseases; priority is given to the early detection of congenital disorders; it was the first country to receive validation from the World Health Organization for eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and syphilis, among others.
Rodríguez Abascal also stated how the Convention on the Rights of the Child has become the most widely ratified human rights instrument in history, helping to transform the lives of children worldwide. The Convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989 through resolution 44/25.
However, she noted, only one State has not yet ratified it: the United States of America. This constitutes an action showing lack of commitment to children and is, in turn, consistent with its daily actions disregarding the principle of the best interests of the child.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations