Cuban Victory in the Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council (HRC), having concluded its fifth period of sessions in Geneva, decided to discontinue the mandate of the so-called Personal Representative of the High Commissioner on Human Rights for Cuba, thus putting an end to the manipulative efforts on the part of the United States in the subject of human rights against our country.

This decision of the body which will replace the discredited Human Rights Commission constitutes a historic victory in the struggle of our people to enforce justice and to put an end to the anti-Cuba exercise conceived by the United States precisely as a pretext to maintain and exacerbate its genocidal policy of blockade and aggression against Cuba.

With this decision, the Human Rights Council recognizes the unjust, selective and discriminatory nature of the actions which for two decades have been perpetrated against our country, and it vigorously denies the rumours about the resolutions and mechanisms which the American government has succeeded in imposing upon the defunct Human Rights Commission through coercion, threats and blackmail.

Support from the members of the Non-Aligned Movement and other Third World countries has been essential in order to achieve this result. Even the European Union countries, permanent allies of the United States in its actions against our country within the framework of the former Human Rights Commission, had no other option than to accept the discontinuation of the discredited mandate against Cuba, as the only way to attempt to give credibility to the Council whose first year of existence is being celebrated today.

This result constitutes an act of essential justice for the valiant and generous Cuban people, whose sons and daughters contributed in the past to the disappearance of colonialism and Apartheid in Africa, and who today offer themselves modestly and selflessly to the realization of human rights for millions of people in more than 100 countries where today the solidarity of more than 42 thousand Cuban doctors, nurses, teachers, sports trainers, engineers and technicians has made its presence felt. It is an act of justice for the people who today train more than 30 thousand young people from 118 countries in their universities, totally free of charge, and who have returned the gift of sight to almost 700,000 people from 31 countries.

It constitutes recognition of Cuba’s prestige and labour and of her Revolution whose undeniable efforts in the promotion and protection of all human rights for all, and in the creation of a society that is ever more just, more egalitarian, more human, cannot be ignored or distorted.

It is a well deserved recognition of Cuba’s defence of Third World interests, of her denunciation of and resistance to the United States' plans for imperial domination, to the Cuba which, because of her worth, was elected founding member of the Human Rights Council by 135 votes, more than two-thirds of the members of the UN General Assembly, despite pressure by the governments of the United States and the European Union, who actively worked in opposition to Cuba’s candidacy.

The result of the process of the Council’s institutional construction, recently concluded, in spite of the shortages and deficiencies from which this body continues to suffer, is favourable to Third World countries, organized and bonded by the Non-Aligned Movement under the Chairmanship of Cuba. The Movement played an active role and saw to it that the Council Agenda includes matters of particular importance to the countries of the South, such as the "situation of human rights in Palestine and occupied Arab territories", "the right to development", and "racial discrimination and xenophobia".

Now, it remains to be seen if the industrialized countries, who were using the old HRC as an instrument to attempt to impose their ideas and their political vision, are truly ready to work on a basis of principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity, constructive dialogue and cooperation, and to avoid the double standards and politicization which led to the discrediting of the late Human Rights Commission, which had been transformed into an inquisitional tribunal of the countries of the South.

Cuba, who in her capacity as Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement has played an important role in this process, will continue to do battle in defence of the truth, of our sovereignty, and of the interests of Third World countries.

Havana, June 19, 2007

"Year 49 of the Revolution”

(Minrex)