CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by Jorge Ferrer, Member of the Cuban Delegation

Agenda item 19: Advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights.

Geneva, April 2005

 

Mr. Chairman:

The item of advisory services and technical cooperation has been turned by industrialized countries into an extension of the politicized, selective and discriminatory Agenda Item 9 of this Commission.

The Report of the Secretary-General on advisory and technical assistance programs in the field of human rights points out that the main focus of the Technical cooperation Program consists of the recommendations of treaty bodies and special procedures.

Both bodies have made criticisms and recommendations to developed countries due to systematic violations of human rights of indigenous peoples and migrants, arbitrary detentions of asylum seekers; the practice of torture, trade in women and children for sexual exploitation purposes, child pornography and also due to denial of fundamental rights and freedoms, with the pretext of the alleged fight on terror.

However, a resolution on technical assistance has never been submitted or passed on one developed country at this Commission; and the High Commissioner for Human Rights has practically no offices in developed countries.

Mr. Chairman:

This Agenda Item is frequently used by developed countries as an instrument of pressure against underdeveloped countries. The latter are threatened with being subject to a resolution under Agenda item 9 which is indeed, the one that deals with so-called human rights situation exclusively, in South countries- if they do not accept the opening of an “in situ” Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, or accept the approval of a resolution under this agenda item.

The same countries which, reluctantly, barely contribute one third of their commitments of official development aid, they allocate several million dollars every year to specific projects on technical cooperation on human rights.

Why? Because technical assistance programs have somewhat become instruments for the imposition of the Agenda of developed countries and of components of their political, legal and economic and domination.

How do developed countries promote their unilateral and selective interpretation of human rights?

Among other ways, through the so-called manuals, guidelines, basic principles, behavior codes and model laws intended to be imposed on underdeveloped countries through technical “cooperation” programs.

Most of these materials are not the result of the concerted will of the international community.

Many of these materials have been drafted by Special Rapporteurs and “experts”, most of them are nationals, residents or people educated in the so-called Western culture, who share the same ideology with the power centers of the transnational capital. Others have been drafted, many times by their own initiative, by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights where almost two-thirds of its staff comes from and is paid for by voluntary and financial contributions from only one political, ideological, economic and military group: that of industrialized countries of the West.

Mr. Chairman:

This is not the result of the imagination or supposition. The Foreign Minister of an Asian small country denounced during the High-Level Segment of this Commission how the Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and her Office in this country violated and exceeded, the mandate granted by the Commission itself.

The Independent Expert for Liberia also stated in paragraph 39 of her Report (document E/CN.4/2005/19) that most representatives of the government of that country expressed concerns because the United Nations Mission for Liberia (UNMIL) has established a “parallel” government which, contrary to the resolutions of this Commission and the General Assembly, hardly consults with local interlocutors. It has also established no criticism or any challenge of its views and/or perceived authority; and opponents are usually publicly derided as “criminals” and “crooks” by UNMIL leadership.

The afore-mentioned problems are not exceptions. Several of the reports submitted under this Agenda item are entitled Report of the Independent Expert on human rights situation in one or other country, which is not in line in several cases, with the letter of the mandate approved by consensus by this Commission and by the Economic and Social Council.

Several of the reports submitted under this Agenda item are not consistent with the principles of universality, indivisibility, interdependence, interrelation and equal significance of all human rights.

Many skip referring to economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development. Others make an inventory of the calamities in terms of human rights, but they do not make reference to their structural causes which are colonialism, and the slavery endured by these peoples for centuries. Neither do they refer to the unjust and unequal current international neoliberal order, which only benefits rich countries.

They all make recommendations on civil and political rights and call upon the national authorities in this field, but practically none of them makes a call upon developed countries which are the real responsible for underdevelopment and poverty, and the only ones that can change the international trade rules, finances and technological transfer, an indispensable condition to overcome the problems facing those countries.

Mr. Chairman:

Advisory services and technical cooperation programs face the serious challenge of succumbing to their virtual privatization and political manipulation or making come true the consensus principles of universality, indivisibility, interdependence, interrelation and equal consideration of all human rights and duly and effectively taking into account national and regional particularities and the diverse historic, cultural and religious heritages as well as the different legal systems.

Setting the objectives and expected results of programs of advisory services and technical cooperation and field activities on human rights are the exclusive and non-transferable competence of intergovernmental bodies and not of any other entity or instance inside or outside the Organization.

As the overwhelming majority of the international community has repeatedly reaffirmed that international cooperation in the promotion and support of human rights and in the solution of international humanitarian problems should be done observing the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, such as sovereignty and independence of States and non-interference in internal affairs. There cannot be cooperation –like some want—against or to the detriment of the basic pillars which this organization rests upon.
Mr. Chairman:

Cooperation cannot be forced upon, let alone be subordinated --as the Secretariat and developed countries want—to the realization of observations and recommendations –usually unrealistic, selective and politicized—by Special Rapporteurs and human rights treaty bodies.

The States' only legal obligations are the ones stemming from the international standards of human rights, to which these are parties, and not the arbitrary, unilateral and whimsical interpretations of experts, special rapporteurs or officials from the Secretariat.

Stop all attempts to impose –as falsely universal-- the values and legal structure of developed countries, disguising them as cooperation and advisory services.

Thank you very much.

 

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