Mr. President,
Cuba reiterates its firm rejection of selective and politically motivated mandates against certain nations, which are always from the South.
The process of improving the efficiency of the Human Rights Council must begin with the rationalisation of these mandates, which cost millions of dollars and have not had, nor will they have, concrete results on the ground, as they do not have the consent of the States concerned and close the door to the necessary cooperation on their part.
No country is exempt from human rights challenges, and no country has the authority to consider itself a paradigm in this area, nor to use human rights as a pretext to stigmatise and interfere in the internal affairs of other States. This is even more true when some of these countries are complicit in the genocide and barbarism committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, which has already cost the lives of more than 65,000 people, most of them defenceless women and children.
Cuba has warned that the current deployment of the United States in the Caribbean Sea constitutes an act of provocation to justify military aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The United States Government cannot be allowed to resort to the threat or use of force, in flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law and the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, which threatens the stability and security of our region and the human right of our peoples to peace.
Cuba will continue to defend cooperation, mutual respect and the universality of human rights in the Council, without selectivity or double standards.
Thank you very much.