Speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, at the High-Level Segment of the 58th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 24, 2025
Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla,
Mr. President:
The right to life is in grave danger. The Charter of the United Nations, international law and multilateralism are being threatened. Economic coercion and political subversion are being imposed as methods of international relations.
This Council must advocate more strongly for a just and democratic international order that guarantees peace and “world equilibrium”, sovereign equality, the exercise of the right to development by all States and environmental sustainability, which ensure the exercise of all human rights.
This Council is an important tool for the promotion and defense of human rights without manipulation, politicization, selectivity or double standards. It is urgent that all States commit to human rights mechanisms that are thematic, universal and non-discriminatory in nature.
We note with concern the advance of conservative and neo-fascist platforms, and how developed countries are experiencing a decades-long setback in fundamental rights, including women’s equality, sexual and reproductive rights, and the rights of people of African descent, ethnic minorities and migrants.
The attempts of Western countries to turn this Council into a repressive body against countries that do not subordinate themselves to their interests are unacceptable and endanger its credibility and existence. The disastrous history of the imploded Human Rights Commission must not be repeated.
The United States, an active accomplice to the Israeli genocide in Gaza City, questions the continued presence on the Council’s agenda of a priority and historic issue, namely the flagrant violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people, to whom we reiterate our full solidarity.
The United States government is applying a policy of maximum pressure against Cuba, deteriorating consumption, income and the standard of living of Cuban families.
The economic blockade causes inflation, low availability of fuel, food and medicines and serious damage to the electricity supply. It hinders the full enjoyment of the rights to food, health, culture and education, which the Cuban state provides free of charge or with extensive subsidies.
We thank the 123 States that, last July, spoke out in this Council against the inclusion of Cuba in the spurious list of the State Department of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism.
Mr. President:
Recently, copious evidence has been disclosed about the practice of the United States government of dedicating millions of dollars from the federal budget, through entities such as USAID and NED, to financing organizations, media outlets, artificial intelligence laboratories, and communication platforms that use the protection of human rights and the promotion of democracy as a front, while responding to the political objectives of that government.
This is a serious and pertinent issue for this Council and its mandate, as it demonstrates the double standards and opportunism with which the issue of human rights has been used to subvert sovereign governments.
Mr. President:
In November 2023, Cuba presented itself for the fourth time to the Universal Periodic Review and accepted more than 80% of the recommendations made, the study and implementation of which we continue to advance.
Last October we successfully presented ourselves to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
In the last year, Cuba has sent its national reports on racial discrimination and forced disappearances to the respective Committees. We have received, on academic visits, four special procedures and one expert from a treaty body.
It is a relationship that we hope to continue building together.
Mr. President:
Cuba will stand firm in its creative and selfless resistance.
We will defend our sovereignty and the socialist rule of law and social justice. We will continue to defend the principles of universality, indivisibility, objectivity and non-selectivity in the treatment of human rights.
The voice of Cuba will continue to be heard in defense of the full dignity of man.
Thank you very much.
Source: Minrex, unofficial translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English