Cuba Transparence at HRC FRANCE, January 30, 2009. Cuba has always fought a fair and no selectivity treatment for all States, with the new method of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). With the UPR, all countries, without exception, should be revised on human rights matter in a four-year period, Cuban ambassador at international organisms in Geneva Juan Antonio Fernandez told Prensa Latina. That is why Cuba has always fought when precisely the loss of prestige destroyed the ancient Commission, which emerged the Council in 2006, with good faith cooperation, dialogue, objectivity and impartiality as guiding principles, Fernandez stressed. This does not mean that only establishing the new Council, the practice of politization on human rights matter be already totally eradicated, he stated. Regarding the island meeting at the UPR of the HRC on February 5, Fernandez, with vast experience in the Geneva diplomatic small groups, highlighted that a top-level delegation will be in charge of presenting the report. "We are going to debate on the basis of mutual respect, present our truth, defend our achievements and show the world what we have reached on human rights matters," he noted. Questioned on the Cuba point of view as to HRC and its UPR mechanism compared to current international dynamics, the diplomat recalled that the Council has hardly three years of existence. "There have been five sessions on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, the most recent Israel aggression against the Gaza Strip, co-sponsored by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)," he explained. Fernandez stated that the Council also established on Cuba's own initiative faced with the NAM, a space to analyze the impact of the world food crisis in human rights, something practically unthinkable in the ancient Commission.(Cubaminrex-PL)
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