Mr. President,
We thank the sponsors for submitting draft resolution L.5.
Enforced disappearance is an unacceptable practice that Cuba categorically rejects and condemns under all circumstances.
We thank the sponsors of draft resolution L.5 for reflecting proposals put forward by our delegation in the text.
Twenty years after the adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, it is necessary to strengthen international commitments to prevent and address this scourge.
We support the call made in the draft to all States that have not yet done so to sign or ratify the Convention.
We support the extension of the mandate of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
It is important to ensure that the Working Group always acts impartially and objectively, in strict compliance with the Code of Conduct for Special Procedures of the Council.
To prevent the Working Group from being used to pursue allegations for political purposes, thereby wasting this mechanism’s limited human and financial resources and undermining its credibility, it is important to carry out a minimum assessment of the credibility and veracity of the sources making such allegations.
It is everyone’s responsibility to prevent the manipulation and abuse of Special Procedures for purposes unrelated to the promotion and protection of human rights.
Cuba’s support for the resolution as a whole should not be interpreted as a change in our national position regarding the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which is mentioned in preambular paragraph 13. Cuba is not a party to the Statute.
Cuba will continue to strictly fulfil its obligations under the Convention on Enforced Disappearance.
Our country will maintain respectful dialogue and constructive cooperation with the Working Group, on the basis of the principles of non-selectivity, non-politicization, objectivity and impartiality.
Thank you.