To save the UN and its collective security mechanisms from collapse; to confront the deliberate flouting of the principles of its Charter
 

GENEVA, MARCH 20, 2003

Madam President:

First of all, I wish to offer you the government of the Republic of Cuba’s sincere congratulations on your election as president of the 59th session of the Human Rights Commission. That not only constitutes an important recognition on the part of the international community of your rich professional development and confirmed competence, but — and in particular — is evidence that the arrogance and interests of hegemonic domination can be defeated when unity and a cooperative spirit among the majority of its members prevail. We hope that our decision to elect yourself, against obdurate opposition and pressure from the U.S. delegation does not convert the Human Rights Commission into another "forgotten corner of the world."

I equally extend our congratulations to Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello on his appointment as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. He will have to take on an arduous task at the most dangerous and complex point in the history of this Commission. I assure him that from now on he can count on Cuba and its will to fully cooperate to aid the success of his functions.

Madam President:

The world has dramatically changed in the last year. More than half a century of experience and unquestionable contributions from the United Nations and the multilateral system founded at the end of World War II are being subjected to unjust and unnecessary humiliation and are on the way to being destroyed.

As we should clearly acknowledge: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is in danger of becoming a dead letter precisely on the 55th anniversary of its proclamation. Let us recall that the visionary authors of the text that would become a landmark in the collective aspiration to build a world of freedom, justice and peace, left established in Article 28 the right of all peoples to an established social and international order in which fundamental liberties and human rights would be made fully effective. Let us say it clearly: that order does not currently exist and would been more distant with every passing day.

This time we are not going to dwell on the issues that have traditionally been the object of our concern. We will not be talking today of the hypocrisy and double standards that have been holding back our labors for years. We will not be calling for profound reform and democratization within this commission. Today, we will not even be defending the right of all peoples to freely elect their own civil and political model and their own way to economic and social development. Neither will we be reiterating the need to grant equal importance to the defense of civil and political rights and the promotion of those always-postponed economic, social and cultural rights. On this occasion we are not going to indict how rights proclaimed in the Declaration, such as: "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights," or "all people have the right to participate in the government of their country," or "all people have the right to work," or "all people have the right to education," "all people have the right to an adequate standard of living that will assure health and well-being, and especially alimentation, clothing, housing, medical care and the necessary social services for them and their families," are not being met today for the overwhelming majority of the planet’s inhabitants.

Although this might cause surprise, neither are we going to use these minutes to denounce the arbitrary and disparaged attempt to fabricate and impose by force a condemnation of Cuba within this Commission, in order to continue justifying the genocidal blockade that successive U.S. governments have imposed on our people for more than 40 years.

Today, our priority has to be another: to save the collapse of the United Nations Organization and its mechanisms of collective security; and to confront the deliberate flouting of principles enshrined in its Charter.

Madam President:

The illegal, unjust and unnecessary aggression against a Third World country, Iraq — already unleashed with total brutality despite the unanimous rejection of world public opinion — is making the right of nations to unfettered self-determination and sovereignty a mere illusion. The end of that war will see a new world order in which our long-held aspiration that the planet should be ruled by the empire of law will have been crushed by the imposition of an order ruled by the law of the empire. Not even the former allies in NATO who accompanied the United States for years during the cold war, are now exempt from military aggression. Can you imagine that that one day the United States could proclaim its right even to invade the city of the Hague, right in the heart of Europe, in the event of a U.S. soldier being taken before the International Court of Justice? Can we expect that not even the European Union, a wise and patient exercise in integration, and now visibly split, will be able to halt the bellicose and hegemonic excesses of the U.S. government?

The consequences of consistent aggression towards international law, unwonted declarations and doctrines, and the constant use of threats and military blackmail that we have seen during the last year still have to be comprehended in their full extension and significance. An entire planet has become the hostage of the capricious decisions of an unbridled power that ignores any and every international commitment and acts only in line with its own interests and its peculiar concept of national security. We are moving towards a new world order in which agreement is being replaced by threat and threat by fear. That, Madam President, is our dilemma and our challenge: to confront in a unified way a danger that threatens us all.

Well, it might be fitting to wonder whether in fact there are any motives for optimism. Cuba firmly believes that there is a powerful reason for feeling optimistic: in the history of humanity great crises have always opened the way to great solutions. No dictatorship, no empire with hegemonic intentions has been able to impose itself all the time on aspirations to justice and freedom for the peoples. It is a fact that on many occasions fear of confronting the powerful, disheartenment and apathy have made the cost of victory a higher one. That is why, today, while it is still not too late, I repeat with all respect the words which, on behalf of Cuba, I expressed to the Commission last year: "Cuba considers that, despite the political differences among us, there is nevertheless, a danger that is common to all of us: the attempt to impose a world dictatorship in the service of the mighty superpower, which has declared without any circumlocutions that one is with it or against it."

At that time the political dangers and actions of the current U.S. government had not been revealed and my words could have been taken as inflammatory rhetoric. However, and lamentably, very recent events have occurred to confirm them. That is why I reiterate today with greater force and conviction our call of last year:

Do the Western nations — until yesterday the allies of the United States in a bipolar world, but today victims like us of this dangerous and unsustainable order that they are trying to impose on us — not believe that the time has come to fight side by side for our rights? Why not attempt a new alliance for a future of peace, security and justice for all? Why not attempt a coalition that once again proclaims the aspiration of liberty, equality and fraternity for all the peoples on its banner? … Why not believe that a better world is possible?"

Cuba believes that the workings of this Commission have to move from a sterile confrontation between the North and South to a joint struggle for a world of peace, justice and equity, the existence of which is today under threat, not only for the nations of the South, but also for those of the North.

We are not alone and, moreover, we are the majority. We also have the decisive support of growing sectors of the U.S. people themselves, whose idealist and just sentiments when they know the truth have been proved to the Cuban people. Are not the huge mobilizations today opposed to an unjustifiable and unnecessary war on Iraq genuinely heartening? And how they continue being opposed to the imposition of the neoliberal model on a globalized world that is impoverishing our countries and preventing them from their dreams of development? Does not the valiant position of France and other countries allow us to optimistically consider the possibility of a world governed by law and not by war?

To sum up, ms. delegates, Cuba is now issuing an invitation to collective reflection, and not to let ourselves be beaten by confusion and pessimism. Cuba invites all members of the Commission to support the initiative to promote a democratic and equitable international order; to support an initiative that proclaims the right of all peoples to peace. Cuba invites you to support the proclamation in this forum of the right to solidarity, of the need for a global, durable and sustainable solution to the problem of the external debt; to support the implementation and application at international level of the Declaration on the Right to Development. Cuba invites you to support a draft resolution that proposes popular participation, equity, and social justice without discrimination as essential bases for democracy. Finally, Cuba invites you to construct a new way of working within this Commission to rectify the practice by a small number of countries of promoting condemnatory resolutions against the underdeveloped countries based on selective criteria and ideological positions that have nothing to do with the cause of human rights.

Madam President:

The world urgently needs peace in order to concentrate all its intelligence and resources on combating the real enemies of our species: hunger, poverty, underdevelopment, the destruction of the environment, illiteracy, disease, and the growing marginalization to which the overwhelming majority of the planet’s population is being subjected.

Let us fight side by side to save the United Nations, to save the principles of multilateralism, and to create the conditions that would give meaning to the workings of this Commission.

Let us build a coalition for justice and peace. Let us concentrate our efforts, over and above our differences today transcended by a greater danger that threatens us all, so that a better world, which will not be given to us on a plate, is possible. But our duty is to fight, and we shall fight for it.

Thank you very much.