New York, 14 June 2017. At UNDP Annual Rule of Law Meeting: Strengthening the Rule of Law for Sustaining Peace and Fostering Development, Cuba pointed out that peace is much more than the absence of war, and called to solve the complex obstacles in terms of social and economic development affecting our nations, particularly those in the South.
At this forum, the Cuban delegate Biana Leyva noted that stable and sustainable peace for all, may only be achieved throughout strict respect for the UN Charter. She emphasized that efforts aimed at sustaining peace, and with it achieve sustainable development, will be thwarted if there is continued application of double standards in issues of the international agenda, unilateral coercive measures and the attempts to impose political systems, certain democracy and human rights patterns.
She confirmed that there will not be sustainable peace, if each time fewer resources are allocated to development and more to the production of new and more sophisticated weapons, including nuclear weapons.
On behalf of Cuba, she defended the criteria that true Rule of Law begins by a truly democratic United Nations, with a reformed Security Council and a revitalized work of the General Assembly.
At the end, she valued the important role to be played by the United Nations Development System (UNDS), and UNDP as its leading Agency, and reiterated Cuba´s commitment with sustainable peace, recalling the Declaration on the Human Right to Peace, adopted by the Human Rights Council under Cuba´s initiative and an important group of countries, which was endorsed by the General Assembly.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations