Cuba in UN: Manipulation of Human Security Concept
United Nations, Apr 16. -Cuba denounced the policies and practices of the UN Secretariat in enforcing the concept of so-called human security, without that term being defined by member countries.
While the definition of human security has not been reached by consensus, a report presented last year by the the UN secretary general lists no less than 20 UN structures that have been working on projects related to that issue since 1999, said Rodolfo Benitez, Cuba's permanent alternate representative, in remarks in the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Implementing policies on the basis of ambiguous concepts allows them to be manipulated by certain countries for narrow political interests, Benitez said.
The Cuban diplomat listed various basic premises for a definition of the term human security, including full respect for the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-intervention in internal affairs.
What human safety can be talked about when starvation claims a daily toll of 17,000 children, 1.2 billion people in the world go hungry, and 759 million adults are illiterate, he asked.
The use or threat of using force must be ruled out explicitly and for any scenario, and it must be ensured that each country's government is the only one with the right to determine its own threats to human security and decide how to deal with them, he said.
Human Security is incompatible with the existence of more than 23,000 nuclear artifacts and a world that spends more to produce weapons than to save lives, Benitez affirmed.
That concept can never be a realit if selectiveness, bias, and double standards continue to be applied to the human rights issue; if economic, social and cultural rights are ignored, and if the right to development is not treated as a top priority, he said.
Benitez mentioned economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 50 years, and which violates international law, has a cost in Cuban lives, and goes against every paradigm of human security. (Prensa Latina)