CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by ambassador Rodolfo Benitez Verson, Deputy Permanent representative of Cuba. Agenda Item 3: Follow-up to the World Summit for social development and the 24TH special session of the General Assembly: Priority Theme: poverty eradication. Commission for social development (49TH session). New York, 9 February 2011.

Mr. Chairman,
Allow me to congratulate you and the rest of the Bureau, and to express our support to the statements by Yemen on behalf of the G-77, as well as by Chile on behalf of the Rio Group.
Over fifteen years ago, at the 1995 Copenhagen Summit, we agreed that poverty eradication was the main road to development. Regrettably, at the Millennium Development Goals Summit held last September, we noted we are very far from achieving the objectives set.
Injustice and exclusion, resulting from the current profoundly unjust and unsustainable international economic order, have an increasing impact on the marginalization of a considerable number of nations of the South.
Hunger, extreme poverty, illiteracy, unsanitary conditions, and early death remain a constant feature in a high number of countries. What is most alarming is that the most affected countries are those less responsible for the crisis. 
The facts speak for themselves: unequal exchange has increased; the official development assistance has contracted in real terms; technology transfer remains very limited and highly conditioned; the markets of more advanced economies continue to be restricted for poor countries’ exports; foreign debt has been paid several times but increases several times over; and financial deregulation and corruption in developed countries has caused a global crisis with particularly negative consequences for underdeveloped economies.
How can we talk about progress on poverty eradication, when over 80 per cent of the world population survives with less than one dollar a day, over 1 billion people live in extreme poverty, and there are almost 800 million illiterates?

Cuba considers unjustifiable and unacceptable that, while millions of people suffer the effects of the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression, astronomical amounts of money continue to be spent in order to maintain 23 000 nuclear weapons in the world. The continuous increase in world military expenditures is simply shameful. They have already reached the figure of 1,531 billion dollars, which is many times the amount for the international development assistance.
The lack of a solution to the suffering of billions of people living in poverty and underdevelopment will also affect industrialized societies. It will knock on everyone’s door, either through unregulated and unmanageable migratory flows, diseases and epidemics resulting from conflicts caused by poverty and hunger, or as a consequence of unforeseeable events.
Mr. Chairman,
In Cuba, many Millennium Development Goals have been achieved, and some have been more than fulfilled, despite the unjust and criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed against Cuba for over 50 years, the impact of powerful hurricanes and droughts, as well as current global crises.
Infant mortality rate in Cuba is 4.5 per a thousand live births, among the lowest worldwide. We have a universal healthcare system that can be accessed by the entire population on a free of charge basis. We have a vaccination program covering thirteen diseases, which benefits virtually 100 per cent of the Cuban children. We have no illiterates and our life expectancy is 77 years, which shows indicators higher than those of many developed countries.
We have shared our modest resources with other nations in need, through international cooperation. We have implemented numerous cooperation programs in 157 countries. Hundreds of thousands of medical doctors and other healthcare personnel, teachers, sport trainers, and other Cuban specialists have selflessly rendered assistance all over the world, often under very poor working conditions.
Mr. Chairman,
In order to eradicate poverty, unconditional solidarity must be fostered. We are firmly convinced that for the human race to survive, the principles of social justice, equality and respect for the rights of peoples and each human being must prevail. This can still be achieved.
Thank you
(Cubaminrex - Permanent Mission UN)