Cuba warns of the dangers to humanity from US maneuvers at the United Nations
New York, April 7, 2022.– The United Nations General Assembly met this Thursday, at the request of the United States, to vote on a draft resolution to suspend the rights of the Russian Federation as a member of the Human Rights Council due to the conflict in Ukraine. Cuba voted against this initiative.
The Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, warned of the dangers posed by the use of such a suspension mechanism, which is unparalleled in any other United Nations body and which can easily be used selectively, particularly against the countries of the south.
He recalled that when the establishment of the new Human Rights Council was being negotiated, the most enthusiastic supporters of the membership suspension clause were developed nations, which showed a clear tendency to blame Southern countries for not conforming to their supposed models of democracy, while faced with remained silently complicit in blatant violations of human rights in Western countries.
Today it is Russia, but tomorrow it could be one of our countries, especially southern nations, which do not bow to the interests of supremacy and resolutely defend their independence, Pedroso Cuesta stressed.
The Cuban diplomat stated that Cuba has always advocated and worked for a Human Rights Council capable of addressing the complex challenges faced by the international community on this matter, from which no country is exempt. However, the Caribbean nation rejected the membership suspension clause because of the serious risk that it would be used by certain countries that favor double standards, selectivity and the politicization of human rights issues.
The island has always defended objectivity, impartiality and transparency in the work of this body and that its procedures and mechanisms operate on the basis of truthful and verified information.
To be elected to the Human Rights Council, a country must obtain at least the support of a majority of UN members in a secret ballot, ie at least 97 votes; the suspension clause can only be activated with the support of two-thirds of those present and entitled to vote; therefore, abstentions do not count and there is not even a minimum vote requirement for approval of the suspension.
In this way the rights of a member of the Council can be overridden by the will of an even smaller number of States than those who have chosen to elect him and grant him those rights.
The Russian Federation, elected as a member of the Human Rights Council by 158 votes in 2020, could be suspended by a lower number today, the ambassador said.
The application of the suspension clause of Council membership will in no way facilitate the search for a peaceful, negotiated and lasting solution to the conflict in Ukraine; and much less will it help to promote the climate of cooperation, dialogue and understanding that must prevail when it comes to the issue of human rights, emphasized Pedroso Cuesta.
(Cubaminrex-Cuba Permanent Mission to the United Nations)
Related information:
Statement by the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, explaining the vote on the draft resolution suspending the rights of the Russian Federation as a member of the Human Rights Council. New York, April 7, 2022