“The promotion and protection of human rights is a common ideal. No country is free of challenges, and none has the authority to consider itself a paradigm in the matter, judge others, and much less, politicize and use it to stigmatize sovereign States,” the head of Cuban diplomacy warned here.

Speaking at the high-level segment of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, Rodriguez condemned the imperialist efforts to turn this United Nations body into a court against countries that do not subordinate to the geopolitical interests of powerful governments. In this regard, he noted the fact that this position erodes the credibility of the Human Rights Council and brings it back to the prevailing atmosphere in the extinct Human Rights Commission.

On Cuba’s behalf, his foreign minister expressed rejection of the effort to stigmatize governments and socioeconomic projects that are not subordinated to the designs of “the masters of finance, markets and weapons.”

Rodriguez ratified Cuba’s stance as a founding member State of the Council to defend dialogue and international cooperation and full respect for the principles of universality, indivisibility, objectivity and non-selectivity in human rights matters and their treatment.

In that spirit, we are running for re-election as a member of the Human Rights Council for the 2024-2026 term, he announced.

Regarding the issue, Rodriguez affirmed that Cuba will continue to raise its voice from the South in defense of the developing countries, the poor and the excluded.

In his speech at the UN-Geneva, the Cuban foreign minister called to build a more supportive and cooperative world, in the face of irrational and unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, which threaten human existence.

jg/wmr