CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by de delegation of Cuba on agenda item 68: Promotion and protection of human rights: b) Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms; c) Human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives.  65 UNGA. Third Committee. New York, 27 October 2010.

Mr. Chairman,
A future of peace, development and full realization of all human rights for all will only be built through cooperation, solidarity and mutual respect.
Once again this year, Cuba had the hope that the debates of the Third Committee were based on those principles and had the purpose of tackling the urgent challenges faced by humankind, particularly the countries of the South. However, instead of promoting an effective cooperation and sincere dialogue on the obstacles preventing and limiting the exercise of all human rights in all parts of the world, many continue to act as prosecutors of the world and to universalize a single model of social organization.
While the rhetoric of unity and alliances spreads and we are called to work jointly to overcome serious challenges faced by humankind, the South is continued to be looked at disdainfully and arrogantly from some capitals of the North.
The defense and respect for the right to self-determination of peoples must be the cornerstone of our actions. The diversity of cultures, religions, political, economic, and social systems is our greatest treasure. Any attempt to subdue this heritage by imposing patterns and models of centers of power from the capital of the North, constitutes a grave violation of the very essence of human rights.  
The principles of universality, objectivity, impartiality, and non-selectivity in the human rights’ approach continue to be absent from the speeches and practice of various countries of the North.

As long as selectivity of the countries of the North remains, we, the countries of the South, will rise up to proactively denounce the violations of human rights we have fell victim to by those countries for centuries and all violations of human rights committed in countries of the North and territories under their jurisdiction. 
Mr. Chairman,
Freedom and democracy are not exclusive of the countries of the North, which have been granted no powers to judge and determine the political and social destiny of other countries.
As we prepare to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development, when the world is plunged into a serious economic and food crisis, it is increasingly necessary the enjoyment of the right to development, without which there will be no peace or security in the world and democracy will remain pure fiction. Stop the desire to “civilize us” and let us promote a true dialogue among the different civilizations in the world, as well as social justice, equality and international solidarity.
The protection and promotion of human rights can only be fostered in a way including the full respect for the purposes and principles of the Charter, in the face of the attempt to eliminate them, rewrite them or interpret them so as to legitimate a unipolar order and the hegemonic interests of some powers.
The reiterated eagerness to judge and stigmatize our peoples of the South, with an imbalanced approach exclusively and manipulatively in favor of civil and political rights, only tries to increase the economic domination of powerful countries, and the cultural and ideological homogenization, facilitated by the monopolistic domination of the mass media and the entertainment, the manipulation of the bodies of the international system, and wars of occupation.
Cuba reiterates its willingness to cooperate and establish a dialogue about human rights, on the basis of mutual respect for and attachment to the rules of International Law, particularly to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Cuba will continue to firmly fighting manipulation and in favor of international cooperation on human rights.
Mr. Chairman,
In exercising the mandate of special procedures, we consider important they act within the limits of their mandate and strictly respecting the Code of Conduct. Compliance with these necessary premises contributes to the development of cooperation and constructive dialogue between experts and States, and to a true promotion and protection of human rights for all. 
In this context, Cuba reiterates its willingness to continue cooperating with all experts designated to implement mandates of the Human Rights Council, established on non-discriminatory basis.
This decision will remain firm despite the fact that our country continues to be object of the policy of hostility and genocide blockade implemented by successive US administrations, and the recent escalation of a fierce anti-Cuba political media campaign.
Mr. Chairman,
Let us not allow hypocrisy and double standards to affect the work of the Third Committee. We must work together to prevent the ills that put paid to the Commission on Human Rights from returning to the current machinery, including the Human Rights Council. The review of the Human Rights Council we request must not be used to try to impose the same practices that plunged the Commission into discredit.   
Cuba will continue advocating genuine cooperation, mutual respect, truth, justice, universality, impartiality, and non-selectivity in the human rights’ approach.
Thank you

 

(Cubaminrex – Misión ONU)