CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by Pedro Núñez Mosquera, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cuba on Agenda Item 69: Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, a) Implementation of Human Rights Instruments

64 UNGA. Third Committee.

New York, 20 October 2009.

Mr. Chairman,

In 1959, we, the Cuban people, started building a political, economic and social system to accomplish the dream of human rights for all, without any kind of discrimination. This process was initiated after over a hundred years of struggle to achieve the full independence and sovereignty of our country.

Before 1959, corruption, electoral fraud, plundering of national heritage, hunger, illiteracy, diseases, poverty, and imposition of brutal dictatorships, which intended to silence with blood the just claims of the people, characterized the governance in Cuba in the nearly six decades of neo-colonial republic controlled from Washington.

Today, the Cuban people has made significant achievements in the enjoyment of all human rights we humbly present in the scope of the economic, social and cultural rights; the civil and political rights; or the realization of the so-called third-generation or solidarity rights.

The most important right the Cuban people has achieved is the full exercise of its right to self-determination, facing the serious obstacles and threats from the policy of hostility and blockade imposed by successive US Administrations.

The achievements of Cuba in areas such as healthcare, education, scientific and technical research, culture, and sports are known worldwide. This has been possible because the Cuban people owns its political fate and the resources of the country by means of a participatory democracy designed and approved by the people itself in universal plebiscite.

The Cuban people has modestly promoted unselfish international cooperation on human rights. Tens of thousands of Cubans shared the fate of millions of brothers and sisters in the fight against colonialism and apartheid.

Since, 1961, 351 thousand Cuban cooperation workers have reached the most far-off villages, mountains and hard-to-reach places of 157 nations, to share the Cuban achievements in areas such as healthcare and education with those peoples.

Nowadays, over 50 thousand healthcare, sports, and education Cuban professionals provide cooperation services in 99 countries and 4 overseas territories; more than 38 thousand of them work in healthcare in 73 countries and 2 overseas territories.
Mr. Chairman,

Cuba has a vast record in terms of international cooperation in the area of human rights, proving, through concrete facts, its unequivocal willingness to frank and open dialogue.

Cuba is State Party to 42 of the main treaties relating to human rights and we strictly abide by the obligations thereupon, including the submission of relevant reports. In 2008, we signed the International Covenants on Human Rights. This gesture is a reflection of the willingness of Cuba to strengthen cooperation with the mechanisms relating to this matter.

On February 2, 2009, Cuba became the eighth country to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, thus ratifying the commitment of Cuba to the rights in this instrument. In fact, in the last 50 years, there has never been a Cuban mother trying to retrieve the remains of her disappeared son or a grandmother trying to find her grandchild given to a family after the murder of his or her parents. Also, there has never been a single case of torture.

Cuba was the fifth country to ratify the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, although since the Revolution, we have advocated for the rights of such persons.

Cuba supported the establishment of the Human Rights Council, which was created after the failure of the Commission on Human Rights, immerse in politicization and manipulation on human rights.

Both in the former Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, Cuba has always championed the noble causes of the peoples and the imperative of giving priority to the economic, social and cultural rights so that they are at the same level as the civil and political rights. We have also engaged actively in the creation of international norms to enrich the promotion and protection of human rights for all.

As a founding and current member of the Human Rights Council, Cuba has worked in the institution building of this body and we continue promoting its consolidation on the basis of mutual respect, international cooperation, and constructive dialogue.

Cuba was one of the first countries to be visited by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights barely a year after this post was established.

In the context of this commitment to cooperate with the mechanisms which are implemented on a universal, non-discriminatory, non-selective and non-politicized basis in the field of human rights, our country welcomed visiting missions from several thematic procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council.

We reiterate our readiness to continue inviting other special procedures of the Human Rights Council to visit the country, in tune with the new conditions and consistent with the tradition of cooperation of the Cuban government.

We reaffirm our commitment to continue systematically providing all the necessary information to meet the requests of the special procedures of the Human Rights Council.

We recently engaged in the universal periodic review, attaining excellent results. This mechanism must ensure the impartial, objective and non-selective scrutiny of the situation on human rights in any country.

Last, we hope the former scheme of sanctions against countries of the South and the automatic impunity for the countries of the North, are not repeated in the current UN human rights system. Likewise, we reaffirm the unfailing sovereign decision of the Cuban people to continue building an ever more just society for all Cubans.

Thank you.

(Cubaminrex- Embacuba ONU)

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