Mr. President:

I am speaking on behalf of Cuba.

The Human Rights Commission is now more divided than ever and is close to being irreversibly discredited. On one side are the representatives of the Third World: we are the hostages of debt, the victims of the unjust order imposed on the world, and merely the masters of our misery and relegation; we are the ones who furnish the millions of hungry, poor, illiterate peoples, the children and mothers who die, those who have cemented the opulence of our exploiters with our suffering. In this commission, we are always the accused.

On the other side are the representatives of the developed and rich countries: they are the creditors, those who consume almost everything that is produced, those who squander, contaminate and overlook the fact that they owe their wealth to us. And they are, moreover, those who try to become the accusers and judges of our countries.

The time has come to sweep away hypocrisy and double standards from the labors of this commission. Could the United States explain why it votes against considering hunger, which currently affects almost one billion people, an outrage against and a violation of human dignity?

Could it explain how it, while attempting to accuse Cuba, it opposes the condemnation of the flagrant and massive violations of human rights perpetrated by the Israeli army against the valiant Palestinian people?

The time has come to demand a wide-ranging process of reform and democratization of this commission. Every year we discuss it and various resolutions to this end have been passed. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the Human Rights Commission continues to be an instrument in the service of domination on the part of the United States and its allies.

Can this situation be changed? Of course it can. But we require you, the representatives of the developed countries, to modestly accept the justice of our demands. It is necessary that you acknowledge that you are not the absolute masters of the truth. You must give up the racist notion that we, the poor, cannot also be right.

We need a more democratic and tolerant world. Why does a small group of rich and powerful countries want to impose a world which is increasingly less democratic and pluralistic? Why do we not fight for greater tolerance not only within countries, but in relations among countries? Why not accept the existence of diverse models of civil and political structures? What right do they have to attempt to impose a single democratic model? Did we not agree at the World Conference on Human Rights that all peoples have the right of self-determination and, by virtue of this right, to freely establish their political conditions?

The labors of this commission can only prove useful if they are based on respectful cooperation; never on dogmatic imposition and arrogance.

Cuba will continue to demand that this commission cease being a hostage of unjustifiable interests. Cuba will not stop battling as long as the rights of all countries are not respected, until the work of this commission is guaranteed to be pluralistic, transparent, objective and democratic.

Mr. President:

The United States accuses Cuba of human rights violations. As we all know, this accusation does not stem from any genuine concern for the human rights situation in Cuba. It is really about whether a small Third World country can or cannot select its own road and construct, in its own way, a future of equality and well-being for its sons and daughters.

I reject with profound contempt the charge against Cuba, fabricated by the United States and imposed by means of heavy pressure in the very heart of this commission. I firmly sustain, looking at all of you directly in the eyes, that there are no violations of human rights in Cuba; that the attempt to single out Cuba in this commission has absolutely no justification; that such an asseveration is only possible due to the pathological incapacity of the United States to accept Cuba as an independent country which it no longer controls.

After more than 40 years of genocidal blockade and economic warfare, invasions, acts of terrorism, attempts at subversion, sabotage, plots to assassinate Cuban leaders, biological warfare and many other aggressions, the Human Rights Commission is the latest battlefield between U.S. attempts to oppress Cuba and our desires for independence, justice and development.

I am not going to spend time explaining Cuban realities and in proving the unjust and selective nature of the U.S. accusations. There really is no need. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you know it. I will confine myself to saying that the United States is the country with the least moral authority to judge Cuba in terms of human rights and democracy.

I have to ask: have you seen in Cuba, at any time whatsoever, the police beating up workers or students on a demonstration, firing rubber bullets at them, letting loose dogs, horses or tear gas on them, as occurs daily in more than a few places in the world of today?

You know that in Cuba the leaders march together with the people on demonstrations.

Even the recent U.S. State Department report on the human rights situation in the world—in which, of course, I recognize no legitimacy whatsoever and in which, as we know, the only country not mentioned is the United States itself—acknowledges that there are no deaths or disappearances for political motives in Cuba. Despite its visceral hatred of our country, its obsession to condemn us and its lack of scruples, the United States has not dared to lie, at least on this aspect. Our record is so transparent and humane that it is impossible to deny it!

Is there somebody in this room who could mention one sole case of torture, murder or a disappeared person in Cuba? Does anyone in this room know of one single case of a journalist murdered in Cuba, or of kidnapped children—other than the failed attempt to kidnap a Cuban child in the United States; or of the sale of children or of slavery?

Has anyone heard talk of a death squad in Cuba? Has anyone seen a demonstration of mothers and grandmothers reclaiming their murdered or disappeared children and grandchildren? Have any of you heard that the Cuban government, behind the people’s back, has imposed an International Monetary Fund adjustment program or has given away the country’s wealth to the transnationals? Have you asked yourselves why, after 40 years of blockade and 10 years of extreme economic difficulties, we have preserved the overwhelming support of our people, which is daily growing?

The response lies in the fact that the Revolution belongs to the people, not to an elite obsessed with power.

As leaders in Cuba, we see our responsibilities as a duty, an attitude towards life, not a way to make a living. Our authority is not solely based on our democratic and transparent election without money or corruption, but on our people’s conviction that we do not steal, that we do not see ourselves above their needs and dreams, that we share their difficulties, that we do not renounce an austere and committed life.

Does this mean that we have created a perfect society? No, we are not satisfied. We are only beginning.

We are trying to eradicate centuries of marginalization and injustice. We are attempting to raise education and culture to levels never before attained by our people. We are striving to achieve for our children levels of equality, social justice and community participation that have not been reached in any other society.

We shall make every effort necessary to continue improving our work, to make our political system even more efficient and participatory —although it is well known that it is incomparably more democratic than that of our fallacious accusers.

In Cuba we are fighting for a society which is ever more tolerant and humane. We dream of a people ever more cultured and educated, which is a way of saying a people that is freer by the day. We aspire to all the knowledge possible for all of the people, and not just for an elite. We dream of a people with a deep social sensibility, freed from egotism, with deep-rooted humanist convictions. We dream, and we are continually drawing closer to those dreams, of a people for whom the homeland is humanity. A society like ours, where people and their dignity are the center, and which does not accept violence, repression or deceit.

We cannot be pressured. We do what we believe is just and appropriate. We have our ethics. We have morals. And I should state with all clarity: we do not accept and will not accept pressure or threats.

It is the time for definitions. Anyone who supports the United States in its ineffectual motion against Cuba does not have the moral authority to talk to us of human rights. One cannot reject the blockade of Cuba and at the same time be an accomplice of the United States in the maneuver with which it is trying to justify that blockade.

We have the encouragement and sympathy of the peoples of Latin America, who know that our fight is also for their rights, who remember Cuba’s support in the period when U.S.-backed dictatorships tortured, murdered and disappeared thousands of people in Our America.

We also know that Cuba’s fight is for respect for the rights of the entire Third World, for an end to the disdain and the lack of recognition of our right to a more egalitarian and just world, our right to development and life.

Mr. President:

It annoys the United States that Cuba wishes to be free and independent. And Cuba is not going to renounce being ever more free and independent!

It annoys the United States that Cuba is socialist. And Cuba is going to be more and more socialist!

It annoys the United States that in Cuba the people command. And in Cuba, more and more, the people are going to be the owners of their destiny!

It annoys the United States that Cuba has foiled its imperialist and hegemonic aspirations. And Cuba will be more and more anti-imperialist and in solidarity with just causes!

The United States wants to organize a party calling for annexation to the United States in a fragmented and weak Cuba. And Cuba will maintain the party of unity and independence, of social justice and dignity, of real equality and genuine solidarity among all humans and peoples, without which there can be no freedom, democracy or peace!

Our ideas, our right, our truth, our invincible strength, our indestructible freedom are sustained by 40 years of heroic resistance.

The U.S. rulers no longer know what to do with Cuba. In one field or another, they are suffering defeat after defeat. What they are trying to achieve in this commission, on the basis of humiliating pressure on its members, and at an extremely high political cost, demonstrates that they have forgotten that famous reflection of King Pyrrhus: "With another victory like this, I am lost."

Such efforts have turned us into the freest people on earth, not dependent on its trade, its credits or its investments. Today, we enjoy the rare, almost unique privilege of being able to tell you the whole truth and to destroy every one of their lies, on this or any other rostrum.

We are not accusing the people of the United States, capable of being noble and idealistic; we are accusing a hegemonic system of domination, and a selfish, rapacious and unsustainable political and economic order imposed on the world.