CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement of the delegation of Cuba on agenda item 64: Report of the Human Rights Council. 65th UNGA. Third Committee. New York, 2 November 2010.

Mr. Chairman,
It has been nearly five years since the Human Rights Council began its work.
The Council was created in response to the pressing need to face the discredit of its predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights, which was plunged into double standards, confrontation and political manipulation.
The Council was the result of intense and participatory hours of debates and negotiations. Its representativeness was ensured through a proper geographical distribution of the membership. The new organ was subordinated, as it should be, to the United Nations General Assembly.
The Council has shown solid democratic foundations in its working methods and in designing its agenda. However, there are still significant challenges and threats to the environment of cooperation and genuine dialogue in the work of the Council.
We are concerned over the impossibility to end all those mandates of countries established on discriminatory and selective basis that characterized the addressing of item 9 in the Commission on Human Rights.
We reaffirm the importance for the Council’s special procedures to respect the principles of objectivity and impartiality, as well as the Code of Conduct adopted during the institutionalization of the Council.
We consider positive the general results of these two years of work of the Council. In its short existence, it has managed to consolidate effective practices for a truly universal review of the human rights’ situation in the world, and an environment of respect and confidence which are essential for its work.
The Council has also demonstrated its capability to address emergencies that require the attention of the international community, like the serious violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people perpetrated by Israel.
Mr. Chairman,
With the first steps in the review process of the Human Rights Council now in Geneva, Cuba stresses the need to respect the mandate established in General Assembly Resolution 60/251.
The review of the Council must be a unique, transparent and inclusive intergovernmental process, in all its aspects.
The review process must be first carried out in Geneva and then in New York, and must incorporate all topics to be reviewed in a single package that would be introduced as a recommendation of the Council to the General Assembly for the final decision, given the subsidiary nature of the Council. 
We consider radical changes are not necessary in the functioning of the Council. The main purpose of the review process must be the consolidation of the approach of cooperation and dialogue in the work of that organ. 
We will work to preserve the positive elements of the Human Rights Council, and to definitively eradicate selective practices as well as political motivations still underlying the treatment of the situations on human rights.
We will oppose every attempt to reintroduce the practices of selective and discriminatory treatment against countries. To Cuba, the Universal Periodic Review is the ideal mechanism for the consideration of the situation on human rights in all countries, on the basis of equality.
Mr. Chairman,
The international community hopes we can jointly and effectively respond to all crises presently affecting humankind, particularly the countries of the South.
When the world faces the serious challenges posed by the deep economic, financial, energy, environmental, food, and social crises, the right to international solidarity becomes an urgent demand the Human Right Council must meet.
As long as there is an unjust and exclusive international economic and political order, the Council must continue to call for a democratic and equitable international order.
As long as coercive unilateral measures are imposed and severe blockades are maintained, like the one Cuba has suffered for over 50 years, the Council must reject and call for the end of such practices.
As long as there is injustice and inequality in the world; as long as hunger afflicts almost one billion human beings; as long as there are more than 800 million illiterate people and around 11 million children die before reaching the age of five, the Council must work on addressing economic, social and cultural rights with the same strength and conviction that it addresses civil and political rights.
Cuba reiterates its willingness to cooperate with the Human Rights Council and with the human rights machinery in the United Nations system and its institutions of universal and non-discriminatory implementation.
We reaffirm our willingness to hold talks with all States on the basis of mutual respect, the acceptance of the sovereign equality, and the recognition of the right of every people to choose its political system and its institutions.

Thank you

 

(Cubaminrex – Misión ONU)