On speaking at an interactive dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on poverty, Olivier De Schutter, the Cuban ambassador insisted that the causes of the scourge predate the Covid-19 pandemic, and respond to the prevailing order and the repeated failure of several powers to comply with their development aid commitments.

In the ongoing debates of the 47th session of the Council, Quintanilla welcomed the report presented by De Schutter and described as ‘alarming some of the figures unfolded in the document, particularly those relating to the setback in the fight against extreme poverty, since the Covid-19 crisis broke out.’

During the forum, governments regretted that some 700 million human beings live in poverty and that the pandemic could push another 100 millions to that situation.

For Cuba, in the voice of its representative to the Human Rights Council, the answers to such a challenge require the political will to positively respond by the rich countries and a true spirit of international solidarity.

‘Without this, it will be impossible to make progress in the fight against poverty and exclusion, in pandemic or without pandemic,’ Quintanilla warned.

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