38th regular session of the Human Rights Council
Geneva, June 18, 2018.
Mr. President:
We thank the Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity for presenting the report on the visit to Cuba of his predecessor, Mrs. Virginia Dandan.
We reiterate our profound gratitude to Ms. Dandan for visiting Cuba. Likewise, we emphasize the constructive, professional approach attached to the mandate the Independent Expert maintained both during his visit to the country and in the six years of performance in her position. We consider that this is an essential quality in the execution of all special procedures.
The result of the visit is reflected in the content of the report. Ms. Dandan was able to confirm the priority given by the State and Cuban civil society to the promotion of international solidarity as a right of peoples and individuals, as well as to cooperation, an essential tool in the realization of that right.
The Independent Expert held meetings with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment. Likewise, she met with senior executives from the Ministries of Education and Higher Education, the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation, the Ministry of Public Health and the National Civil Defense Chief of Staff. In addition, she held meetings with the President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples and with representatives of the Cuban civil society.
As part of her program, she visited the community project of the Convent of Bethlehem in Old Havana, the Central Unit of Medical Collaboration and the Latin American School of Medicine. In all those places she was able to appreciate, first hand, the results of Cuba in terms of international solidarity.
Mr. President:
We thank Mrs. Dandan for recognizing Cuba's role in international cooperation for decades, as well as the principle defended by our country not to give what is left over, but to share what we have.
Likewise, we emphasize that the Independent Expert described the United States blockade against Cuba as an injustice and stressed that despite its effects, the country had reached important achievements in the area of human rights.
Mr. President:
The international cooperation of Cuba is based on the values of solidarity and humanism inherent to the Cuban society.
That is the reason why 407 thousand Cuban health professionals have been present in 164 countries on all continents from 1963 until today. Currently, more than 50 thousand collaborators are providing their services in 65 nations.
Also as part of the collaboration, 35 thousand 142 health professionals from 136 countries have graduated in our country and today 11 thousand 527 young people from 126 nations study there.
The "Yes I Can" literacy program has been implemented in 28 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, which has allowed millions of people to guarantee a basic human right, the right to education by learning to read and write, and in many cases, being able to continue their studies.
The Miracle Operation has restored the vision to thousands of people.
Mr. President:
On July 27, 1991, Nelson Mandela in Matanzas, Cuba, wondered: “How many countries of the world benefit from Cuban health workers or educationists?
How many of these are in Africa?
Where is the country that has sought Cuban help and has had it refused?”
That internationalism could not be stopped for almost six decades. The slaves torn from their land and driven to the Caribbean plantations to work in the harvest, returned five centuries later as liberators to fight against colonialism in Algeria, Congo, Angola, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau and Namibia, among other countries. They also turned into doctors, builders, teachers, athletes, to help the development of our sister nations of Africa, Latin America and Asia.
For Cuba, international solidarity is a right of peoples and persons and one of the requirements to achieve a democratic and equitable international order, in strict accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Thank you very much.