Madam Chair,
Fifteen years after the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and related Intolerance, its full implementation remains a pending issue in the struggle for equal rights for all human beings.
We note with concern that in many regions and countries of the world, racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia continue to occur, and even take new and more sophisticated forms.
This is reflected in the persistence in creating associations and political parties with a racist platform, erecting monuments and organizing public demonstrations to glorify the Nazi past and neo-Nazism, social exclusion and the marginalization of peoples, ethnic groups, minorities or other categories of social groups and individuals, the negative impact of racial profiling in preparing and implementing policies, the proliferation of policies and discriminatory immigration policies and laws and the adoption of anti-terrorism laws, ensuring ample spaces for arbitrariness and the exercise of public authority on discriminatory, racist and xenophobic foundations.
It is time for discrimination against races, ethnic groups, nations and entire communities to cease. Racial hatred and killing or physical aggression against a group of people for their origin, race or creed must be fought and eliminated. Effective measures must be further taken to deal with the root causes of these problems and address the aggravating circumstances that generate them.
An express prohibition should be established for the use of racial and ethnic profiling by the law enforcement agencies. Cold blooding killing by the police or by those attacking certain people for their race or ethnic origin should not go unpunished.
There is also an increasingly urgent need to place greater emphasis on addressing this issue in its manifestations and potential impact, both by the States and the United Nations agencies dealing with this and other related issues. This could contribute to promote actions aiming at giving appropriate priority to this matter in the political agendas of the most affected countries.
We share the view that the International Decade for People of African Descent provides an opportunity that should be seized by all States to focus on the challenges to be faced in combating racial discrimination; to draw policies that allow us to solving identified problems and to strengthening international cooperation in order to achieve a world where equality, mutual respect and social justice prevail.
We reiterate the willingness, expressed by Cuba several times, to continue supporting this effort in a practical and resolute manner not only with words but also with concrete actions. We likewise reaffirm our readiness to further implement the Program of Activities of the International Decade for People of African Descent at the national level and to give due priority to address the reminiscences of discriminatory prejudices that can still persist in our country.
Additionally, we endorse our commitment to continue to contribute to the fight against racism, beyond our borders, through the selfless, voluntary and self-sacrificing cooperation of our collaborators, who have paid no heed to the color of the skin or social status of a person in any corner of the world to extend the hand of international solidarity.
Madam Chair,
As to the right to self-determination, we reiterate our full support to the Human Rights Council Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries, so that it continues its work on this phenomenon which clearly violates international law.
Same as every year, Cuba is submitting draft resolution entitled: Use of Mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the rights of the peoples to self-determination. We invite delegations to support and co-sponsor this initiative.
Cuba does not forget that terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles, the mastermind behind the explosion on board of a Cuban Airlines plane in mid-flight, taking the toll of 73 lives on October 6, 1976, remains at liberty and is not responding for such horrendous crime at the judicial level. These kind of mercenary actions confirm the validity to claim the end of such practices before this chamber.
Madam Chair,
Although since its emergence the United Nations articulated the paramount objective to preserve future generations from the scourge of war and build a new way of engaging, guided by a set of purposes and principles including the right to self-determination and full respect to the sovereignty of States, this remains a goal we have failed to attain.
There have been constant wars of aggression, interference in the internal affairs of States, the ousting of sovereign governments by force, the so-called “soft coups” and the re-colonization of territories, upgraded now with non-conventional actions, using new technologies and the pretext of alleged human rights violations
The Cuban people, forced to cope with the negative effects of a criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade for more than half a century, as well as with the most dissimilar aggressions, have paid dearly for upholding its right to self-determination.
It is on the basis of such experience and the international solidarity received in our own struggle that we will remain a supporter of the just struggle for the self-determination of the peoples that are still subject to foreign domination.
We will particularly continue to speak out for a just and lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East, which inexorably demands the effective exercise of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to build their own State and to freely determine their political and economic system.
Moreover, we reiterate our solidarity to the Puerto Rican people and to its right to self-determination.
As long as domination and foreign occupation persist, speaking of respect for human rights of the occupied peoples will be meaningless. The right of the peoples to self-determination is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of all human rights.
I thank you very much.