GENEVA, March 13, 2007.- Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque denounced Tuesday in this city that the US and its allies are plotting to harm the reputation of the Human Rights Council. When speaking at the fourth ordinary period of sessions of that UN instance, the Cuban minister said there are intentions to delay the Council s institutional structure and return to the practice of punitive resolutions against southern countries. The term to approve mechanisms related to its functioning will expire on June 18, he recalled, warning it should not be postponed. Perez Roque referred to the Cuban statement at the Council s opening session in favor of creating a proper system for the promotion and protection of human rights for all, not only rich or privileged people. The real motivation of the current delaying maneuver, encouraged by some of the US allies, is to hand in the final phase of the process to a new membership and especially a new board more favourable to their interests, the official pointed out. There are people interested in taking selectivity, political manipulation, and double standards to that organ, turning the Council into an inquisitive court against nations of the South, the Cuban minister added. There are also intentions to guarantee impunity for atrocities committed by imperialist powers outside their territories, a recipe based on cynicism, hypocrisy, and complicity that plunged the former Human Rights Commission into discredit. (Cubaminrex-PL)
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