YouSaid · the spoken record

Felipe PÉREZ ROQUE

lines on the record: 160
first: 1999-09-24
most recent: 2007-09-24
sittings or episodes: 8
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We may be accused of being dreamers, but we are fighting with the conviction that today’s dreams will be tomorrow’s realities. We are fighting and we will not stop fighting with the conviction that even when there are individuals without decorum, there are always others who have in themselves the decorum of many and who bear within themselves an entire nations, as well as human dignity.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Cuba appreciates the solidarity it has received from the General Assembly in its struggle against the blockade and the aggression that it has been forced to endure for nearly five decades. In particular, I thank the President of Nicaragua, Comrade Daniel Ortega, who is here in the Hall, for his kind words yesterday, and I thank all those who have spoken out for the rights and justice for the Cuban people. Cuba thanks all those who have supported its tenacious fight against terrorism and have raised their voice in favour of the release of five Cuban anti-terrorism fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United States. Cuba will fight, along with all other members of the Non-Aligned Movement, in order to achieve a more just and democratic international order, in which our peoples can exercise their right to peace and development.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Cuba, on the other hand, was elected as a founding member of the Council with more than two thirds of the votes. He talked about cooperation, development and prosperity for the rest of the world, but we all know that he is lying. He has been the most selfish and reckless politician we have ever seen. In a world that this year will bear witness to the death of 10 million children under the age of five through preventable diseases, his self-seeking and empty proposals of yesterday are but a sick joke. President Bush has no moral authority or credibility to judge anyone. He should be held accountable to the world for his crimes. There is a limit to both arrogance and hypocrisy. There is a limit to lies and blackmail. Cuba rejects and condemns every one of the mendacious words uttered yesterday by the President of the United States.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“He is responsible for the death of 600,000 civilians in Iraq; he authorized tortures at the Guantánamo naval base and at Abu Ghraib; and he is an accessory to the kidnapping and disappearance of people, as well as to the secret flights and the clandestine prisons. He talked about the fight against terrorism, but we know that he is lying. He has ensured complete impunity for the most abominable terrorist groups which, from Miami, have perpetrated horrendous crimes against the Cuban people. President Bush attacked the new Human Rights Council. He is bleeding from his wound; he is grunting his helplessness. He is haunted by the shamefulness that, during his term in office, the United States cannot even look forward to being a member because elections are through secret ballot.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We would have been spared his presence yesterday and would have listened to President Albert Gore talking about climate change and the risks to our species. We also recall how he brazenly supported the coup d’état against the President and the constitution of Venezuela. He talked about peace, but we know that he is lying. We remember well when he threatened 60 or more countries, which he called “dark corners of the world, saying that he would wipe them off the face of the Earth with pre-emptive surprise attacks. Bush is a strange warrior who, from the rearguard, sends the young people of his country to kill and to die thousands of kilometres away. He talked about human rights, but we know that he is lying.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Having powerful nuclear weapons offers no right whatsoever to tread upon the rights of the peoples of the other 191 countries that are represented here. And the determination and courage of peoples should not be underestimated when it comes to defending their rights. After all, what prevails is not the power of cannons but the fairness of the ideas for which you are fighting. The warmongering and menacing President should have already learned this by now: sovereign equality of States, not regime change; respect for sovereignty, not unilateral certifications of good behaviour; respect for international law, not illegal blockades and wars. President Bush talked about democracy, but we all know that he is lying. He came into office through fraud and deceit.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“However, the shameless and gross behaviour of the United States President in this Hall yesterday morning now forces me to utter a few remarks on Cuba’s behalf. With foul language and an arrogant tone, President Bush insulted and threatened some 10 countries. He gave orders in a firm and authoritarian fashion to the General Assembly, and with an officiousness never before seen in this Hall he dished out terms and judgments on a score of countries. It was an embarrassing show the delirium tremens of the world’s policeman, the intoxication of imperial power imbued with the mediocrity and cynicism of those who threaten to launch wars in which they know their lives are not at stake. The President of the United States has no right to pass judgment on any other sovereign nation on this planet.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Among the nations, we will foster relations of friendship based on respect for the principles of sovereignty, equality of rights and the self- determination of peoples. We will continue to defend the right of the grief- stricken and heroic people of Palestine to have their own State, with East Jerusalem as its capital. We will continue to condemn the genocide committed against it. We will continue to proclaim the right of the people of Puerto Rico to sovereignty and to independence. The non-aligned countries account for nearly two thirds of the membership of the United Nations. Our demands will not be forgotten or our interests ignored. This was supposed to be the end of my statement as Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“We need a Human Rights Council that prevents the repetition of the serious mistakes made by the former Commission on Human Rights. The Council should enshrine in its practices the principle that human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent. It should put an end to selectivity and double standards. The non-aligned countries will firmly oppose the devilish schemes of some mighty quarters that, frustrated as they are at failing to achieve their goals, are now attempting to reopen and call into question the agreement reached in the hard and difficult process of institution-building in the Council. The non-aligned countries will not give up on defence of the precepts that underlie our movement.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The non-aligned countries want a more democratic and transparent United Nations in which the General Assembly, its most representative and democratic body, can truly implement the powers vested in it. We need a United Nations with a reformed Security Council, acting in conformity with the mandate granted to it by the Organization’s Charter without infringing on the functions and prerogatives of other organs of the system. There must be a Security Council with an expanded membership in line with the current composition of the United Nations, where the underdeveloped countries are the majority. There must be a Security Council with a radical modification to its working methods in order to allow transparency and the access of all Member States to its deliberations.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“That would make it possible to earmark that money to fight rural poverty and food insecurity and to ensure fair prices for the export products of the underdeveloped countries. Let our right to development be recognized. Let our right to have access to markets, patents and technologies be guaranteed, for those are now the exclusive monopoly of the powerful. Let our countries be helped in training professionals and scientists and let the brain drain stop. The non-aligned countries need no alms; we need and demand justice. Let our rights to cultural diversity be respected, as well as our right to the preservation of our heritage, our symbols and our idiosyncrasies. That was the unanimous demand made in Tehran by the non-aligned countries at our ministerial meeting on human rights and cultural diversity.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“If they really want money to appear, let the commitment of setting aside 0.7 per cent of gross national product as official development assistance be met once and for all. That would require $141 billion over and above the current amounts. At the height of deceit, the donor countries are now auditing the cancellations of a debt that they know they will not be able to collect in order to artificially inflate their contributions. Let the foreign debt, which our countries have already paid more than once, be cancelled. That would make it possible to set aside for development the over $400 billion currently used to service a debt that does not cease to grow. Let the Doha Round for development come to an end and let the $300 billion in agricultural subsidies for the developed countries be removed.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Why are schools not built instead of nuclear submarines, and hospitals instead of “smart” bombs? Why are vaccines not produced instead of armoured vehicles, and more food instead of more fighter jets? Why is there no momentum given to research to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis instead of promoting the manufacture of anti-missile shields? Why is there no war waged against poverty instead of against the poor? Despite the fact that only $150 billion is needed to meet the Millennium Goals, we hear the hypocritical assertion that there is no source from which to obtain the necessary financial resources. That is a lie. There is money in abundance; what is lacking is the political will, ethics and the real commitment of those who have to make a choice.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“One per cent of the world’s richest people own 40 per cent of the wealth, while 50 per cent of the world’s population has barely 1 per cent. All this is happening in a world that spends a trillion dollars on weapons and another trillion on advertising. The nearly 1 billion people living in developed countries consume approximately half of all the energy, while 2 billion poor people are still not acquainted with electricity. Is that the world that they want us to accept? Is that, by any chance, the future that we should settle for? Are we entitled or not to fight to change that state of things? Should we or should we not fight to make a better world possible? Why are such colossal resources squandered on the killing industry and not used to save lives?”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“On a day like today, it is worth recalling the words uttered by President Fidel Castro in this General Assembly in October 1979: “Let us say farewell to arms, and let us in a civilized manner dedicate ourselves to the most pressing problems of our times. This is the responsibility, this is the most sacred duty of the statesmen of all the world. Moreover, this is the basic premise for human survival. There has been no progress to date towards fulfilling the Millennium Goals and the decisions of the major United Nations conferences held over the past decade. Poverty has not decreased. Inequality among and within countries is on the rise. Drinking water is not accessible to 1.1 billion people; 2.6 billion lack health services; over 800 million are illiterate and 115 million children do not attend primary school; 850 million starve every day.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“An attempt is made to prevent, in a politicized and selective fashion, the implementation of the principle already proclaimed in the Non-Proliferation Treaty that nations have the right to the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Some countries are threatened with war and destruction while the aggressive ally is permitted to have hundreds of nuclear devices and is constantly helped to modernize them. How much longer will it take and how many new victims will have to die before the hawks of war understand that weapons are useless in resolving the critical problems of humankind?”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“If a small country defends its right to independence, it is accused of being a rogue State; if a Power launches an attack against a country, it is said that it liberates them; a fighter against foreign aggression is a terrorist; an attacking soldier is a freedom fighter. That is the media war, the twisting of truths, the tyranny of monolithic thinking in a globalized world. Instead of moving towards general and complete disarmament including nuclear disarmament, which has been an ongoing demand of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries for decades what we see is the promotion of the arms race and the squandering of wealth on new weapons and arms systems that deplete the resources that the world needs to mitigate the effects of climate change and address the very serious problems stemming from poverty and marginalization.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Under the false litany of freedom and democracy, an attempt is made to justify the pillaging of the natural resources in the third world and to control zones of increasing geo-strategic importance. That and no other is the imperial domination plan that the mightiest military superpower ever to exist intends to impose through blood and fire. Far from behaving in international relations according to the principles of solidarity, social and international justice, equality and development for all, there is no hesitation at all in employing the practices of certifying countries, of imposing unilateral blockades and of threatening through aggression, blackmail and coercion.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The wars of conquest and the proclamation and implementation of doctrines based on pre-emptive wars which do not exclude the use of nuclear weapons, even against non-nuclear States and the repeated use of pretexts such as the alleged war on terror, the supposed promotion of democracy or so-called regime change in countries that are unilaterally labelled as rogue States are today the greatest and most serious threat to peace and security in the world. Aggression and illegal occupation of countries, military intervention contrary to international law and the purposes and principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the bombing of civilians and torture continue to be daily practices.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The high-level meeting of this General Assembly held only two days ago emphasized the danger posed by the accelerated global warming that is already affecting us and by its effect on climate change. Action must be taken and quickly. The developed countries have the moral duty and the historic responsibility to set the example and spearhead the effort. On the other hand, several of our countries, always from the South, continue to fall prey to unacceptable acts of aggression by the ever-powerful, which are essentially driven by the insatiable hunger for strategic resources.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Never before have the real dangers awaiting the human species become so evident; never before have the violations of international law become so evident, as they increasingly jeopardize international peace and security; never before have inequality and exclusion become so evident, as they impact over two thirds of the population on our planet. Putting an end to wastefulness and to the unbridled consumerism fostered by the large corporations and the power groups of a handful of developed countries which throw money away at the cost of poverty and the perpetuation of underdevelopment in a vast periphery of poor countries where billions of people scramble to make a living has become a key factor for the survival of mankind.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Our brothers and sisters in Africa know this well. We are not pessimists; we are revolutionaries. We do not surrender or conform. Today, more resolutely than ever, we affirm that “we, the peoples” will overcome.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“While we await the day in which that new world and the new United Nations can become a reality, we, the peoples, will continue to fight and, through our resistance, win once again the rights currently denied to us. The powerful only talk about interventions and preventive wars, about imposing draconian conditions or the most efficient ways to control the United Nations, while attempting to legitimize concepts such as the so-called responsibility to protect, which could be used one day to justify acts of aggression against our countries. Let us spell this out clearly: today there is no right to peace for the small. We as Cubans understand this very well, and we rely on the solidarity of peoples, on our united front and on our weapons, which have never been used except to defend just causes.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The scandalous pressures and blackmail brought to bear on Member States, after the United States Ambassador brandished the stick and attempted to impose 750 amendments on the outcome document, will go down in history as the most eloquent evidence that a new world and a new United Nations must be built, with respect for and recognition of the right to peace, sovereignty and development for all, without genocidal wars, blockades or injustice. The final negotiations, from which most United Nations Members were excluded, and the outcome document that was adopted, in which issues of vital interest for our peoples have been omitted, is a vivid illustration of what we are talking about.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“That explains the failure of last week’s summit, which was convened to assess compliance with the modest commitments entered into to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals and which ended as a pitiful imitation of what should have been a serious and committed debate concerning the grave problems currently besetting humankind. It was a complete farce. It was of no interest to the powerful. Their selfish and hegemonic interests run counter to the aspiration for a more just and better world for all.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Were the United States Government to comply with Security Council resolution 1373 (2001), adopted on 28 September 2001, and to the international conventions on terrorism, it would extradite the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela and release the five young Cuban anti-terrorist fighters who have been subjected to cruel and unjust imprisonment for seven years. Had the United States Government allowed the United Nations to act in accordance with the Charter, the Iraqi people would not have been invaded so that they could be robbed of their petroleum, the Palestinian 21 people would exercise sovereignty over their territory and Cuba would not continue to be blockaded. Nor would there be billions of illiterate people or 900 million starving human beings in the world.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
““We, the peoples” — as the Charter says — must bear the burden of a unipolar world, in which a single super-Power imposes its whims and selfish interests on the United Nations and the international community. Therefore, trying to get the United Nations to function in conformity with the principles and purposes enshrined in the Charter is make-believe. It is not possible. And it will not be possible as long as third world countries, which make up the majority of the world, fail to unite and fight together for their rights.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“That happened just two and a half years after having solemnly proclaimed at the Millennium Summit that “We are determined to establish a just and lasting peace all over the world in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter” (resolution 55/2, para. 4). The General Assembly could not even meet to discuss it. The Security Council was ignored and then had to undergo the humiliation of docilely accepting a predatory war that had earlier been opposed by a majority of its members. There is a clear explanation for the current state of affairs, which is that the order enshrined in the Charter pertained to a bipolar world and to a balance of power that no longer exists today.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Actually, we have no reason to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations. The chaotic, unequal and insecure world in which we are now living is not much of a tribute to those who gathered on 26 June 1945 in San Francisco to found the United Nations. From the conclusion of the Millennium Summit in 2000 until today, more of the world’s children have died of preventable diseases than all of the victims of the Second World War put together. The aggression against Iraq was launched, not just without regard to, but even counter to the opinion of the international community.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“With regard to Cuba — and neither blockades, threats, hurricanes, droughts, nor human or natural force can divert it from its course — I shall say nothing. On 28 October, for the thirteenth time, the General Assembly will discuss and vote on a draft resolution on the blockade against the Cuban people. Once again, morality and principles will defeat arrogance and force. I conclude by recalling the words spoken here 25 years ago by President Fidel Castro: “The clashing of weapons, the threatening language and the overbearing behaviour in the international arena must cease. Enough of the illusion that the problems of the world can be solved by nuclear weapons. Bombs may kill the hungry, the sick and the ignorant; but bombs cannot kill hunger, disease and ignorance. Nor can bombs kill the righteous rebellion of the peoples.””
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Lastly, I want to clearly express Cuba’s profound conviction that the 6.4 billion human beings on this planet — who have equal rights according to the United Nations Charter — urgently require a new order in which the world is not in suspense, as is the case now, awaiting the outcome of the elections in a new Rome, in which only half the voters will participate and nearly $1.5 billion will be spent. There is no discouragement in our words; I must make that clear. We are optimistic, because we are revolutionaries. We have faith in the struggle of the peoples, and we are sure that we will achieve a new world order based on respect for the rights of all — an order based on solidarity, justice and peace, resulting from the best of universal culture, not from mediocrity or brute force.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“34 Tenth, the financial resources to guarantee the sustainable development of all peoples on the planet are available, but what is lacking is the political will of those who rule the world. A development tax of merely 0.1 per cent on international financial transactions would generate resources amounting to almost $400 billion a year. The cancellation of the foreign debt incurred by underdeveloped countries would allow them to have no less than $436 billion a year available for their development, money which is currently used to pay off the constantly-rising debt. If developed countries complied with their commitment to set aside 0.7 per cent of their gross national product as ODA, and not 0.2 per cent as they currently do, their contribution would increase from the current $68.4 billion to $160 billion a year.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Eighth, the fight against terrorism can only be won through cooperation among all nations, with respect for international law, and not through massive bombings or pre-emptive wars against dark corners of the world. We must put an end to hypocrisy and double standards. Sheltering three Cuban-born terrorists in the United States is an act complicit with terrorism. Punishing five young Cuban antiterrorists, together with their families, is a crime. Ninth, general and complete disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, is impossible today. It is the responsibility of a group of developed countries that are the ones that sell and buy the most weapons. However, we must continue to strive for this goal. We must demand that the over $900 billion set aside every year for military expenditures be used for development.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Sixth, creditor countries and the international financial agencies will not seek a just and lasting solution to foreign debt. They prefer to keep us in debt — in other words, vulnerable. Therefore, even though we have paid off $4.1 trillion in debt servicing over the last 13 years, our debt has increased from $1.4 trillion to $2.6 trillion. This means that we have paid three times what we owed and now our debt is twice as large. Seventh, we, the underdeveloped countries, are the ones that finance the wastefulness and the opulence of developed countries. While in 2003 they gave us $68.4 billion in official development assistance (ODA), we delivered $436 billion to them as payment for the foreign debt. Who is helping whom?”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Every year, 11 million children continue to die of diseases that can be prevented or cured, and their parents rightfully wonder what our meetings are for. We said that we would pay attention to Africa’s special needs. However, very little has been done. African nations do not need foreign advice or models, but rather financial resources and access to markets and technologies. Assisting Africa would not be an act of charity, but an act of justice, a settling of the historic debt resulting from centuries of exploitation and pillage. We committed ourselves to halting and starting to reverse the AIDS epidemic by 2015. However, in 2003, it claimed nearly 3 million lives. At this rate, some 36 million people will have died of this disease by 2015.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“There would have had to be a yearly reduction of 28 million. However, there has been a reduction of barely 2.1 million hungry people per year. At this rate, the goal will be attained by 2215, two hundred years after what was envisaged, and only if our species survives the destruction of its environment. We proclaimed the aspiration to achieve universal primary education by 2015. However, more than 120 million children — or 1 in every 5 children of school age — do not attend primary school. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at the current rate, the goal will be achieved after 2100. We also proposed to reduce by two thirds the mortality rate in children under the age of five. The reduction has been symbolic: whereas 86 children died per 1,000 live births in 1998, the figure is now 82.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“The 130-plus underdeveloped countries must build a common front for the defence of the sacred interests of our peoples and of our right to development and peace. Let us revitalize the Non-Aligned Movement. Let us strengthen the Group of 77. Fifth, the modest objectives of the Millennium Declaration will not be accomplished. We will reach the fifth anniversary of the Summit in a situation that has worsened. We sought to halve by 2015 the 1.276 billion human beings in abject poverty that existed in 1990. There would have to be a yearly reduction of more than 46 million poor people. However, excluding China, between 1990 and 2000, extreme poverty rose by 28 million people. Poverty does not decline, it grows. We wanted to reduce by half by 2015 the 842 million hungry people in the world.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“33 As of now, we know that the anachronistic privilege of the veto will remain; that the Security Council will not be democratized as it should be or expanded to include third world countries; that the General Assembly will continue to stand ignored; and that, at the United Nations, there will be more actions driven by the interests imposed by the super-Power and its allies. We, as non-aligned countries, will have to entrench ourselves in defending the United Nations Charter, because if we do not it will be redrafted with the deletion of every trace of such principles as the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention and the non-use or the threat of use of force. Fourth, the powerful collude to divide us.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“In spite of the imperial monopoly over information, peoples always get to the truth. Someday, those responsible and their accomplices will have to deal with the consequences of their actions in the face of history and their own peoples. Third, for the time being, there will be no valid, real and useful reform of the United Nations. It would take the super-Power, which inherited the immense prerogative of governing an order conceived for a bipolar world, to relinquish its privileges. And it will not do so.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“First, after the aggression on Iraq, there is no United Nations, understood as a useful and diverse forum based on respect for the rights of all and with guarantees for the small States. It is experiencing the worst moment of its nearly 60 years. It languishes, it gasps for air, it keeps up appearances, but it does not work. Who handcuffed the United Nations, named by President Roosevelt? President Bush. Second, United States troops will have to be withdrawn from Iraq. Now that the lives of over 1,000 American youths have been uselessly sacrificed to serve the spurious interests of a clique of cronies and buddies, and following the deaths of more than 12,000 Iraqis, it is clear that the only way out for the occupier faced with a people in revolt is to recognize the impossibility of subduing them and to withdraw.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Every year at the United Nations, we go through the same ritual. We attend the general debate knowing beforehand that the clamour for justice and peace by our underdeveloped countries will be ignored once again. However, we persist. We know that we are right. We know that one day we will accomplish social justice and development. We also know that such assets will not be given away to us. We know that the peoples will have to seize them from those who deny us justice today, because they underpin their wealth and arrogance with disdain for our grief. It will not be always like that, however. We say so today with more conviction than ever before. Having said this, and knowing as we do that some powerful ones — just a few — present here will be chagrined, and also knowing that they are shared by many, Cuba will now tell some truths.”
2004-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 59 (2004)
“Do creditors by any chance believe that that unjust situation will last forever? Should we, as debtors, resign ourselves to being poor forever? Is that picture of injustice and peril confronted by most countries what the founders of the United Nations really dreamed of? No. Like us, the founders also dreamed that a better world was possible. Those are the questions that, with all due respect, we would like some in the Hall to answer for us. I am not talking about Cuba, which, condemned to die for wanting to be free, has had to fight on its own, not only thinking about itself but also about all the peoples of the world.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Will a realistic debate based on solidarity be held in this Hall to discuss how, in line with the Millennium Declaration, to halve by 2015 the number of people, currently over 1.2 billion in number, who are suffering from abject poverty, as well as the number who suffer from hunger, which is more than 800 million? Will there be any discussion about the nearly 900 million illiterate adults? Or will the Millennium Declaration also become a dead letter, as has been the case with the Kyoto Protocol and the decisions of 10 summits held at the level of head of State? Developed countries will provide Third World countries with $53 billion in official development assistance this year. In return, those countries will charge recipients over $350 billion in foreign debt interest; and our foreign debt will have grown by the end of the year.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“But we do not need a reform that is going to founder unceremoniously as part of a bureaucratic process of adapting what is left of the United Nations to the interests and whims of a few, rich and mighty countries. Finally, we need to return to a discussion of the serious economic and social problems currently affecting the world. We have to make the battle for the right of nearly five billion people to development a priority. The Millennium Assembly committed us to working for very modest and insufficient goals. But everything has now been forgotten, without even a discussion. Seventeen million children under the age of 5 will die this year, not as victims of terrorism but as victims of under-nourishment and preventable diseases.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Reform should also ensure the ability of the United Nations to preserve peace and to lead the fight for general and complete disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, to which many generations have aspired. Reform should also restore to the United Nations its prerogatives to fight for the socio-economic development and the basic rights of all the planet's inhabitants, including the rights to food and life. Doing so is more necessary than ever before, given that neo-liberalism has spectacularly failed and that a new opportunity now exists for establishing a new system of international economic relations. We need to rescue the role of the United Nations and to ensure that all States, large and small, respect the Charter.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“The current situation is already untenable, as evidenced, first of all, by the Security Council's shameful inability to prevent the war in Iraq and, secondly, by its demand on the Government of Israel to refrain from expelling or murdering the leader of the Palestinian people a people who, in accordance with a decision the Council itself took over five decades ago, should long ago have had an independent State. That the Government of the United States has exercised its veto power on 26 occasions to protect the crimes of Israel is evidence of the fact that that unjust privilege must be abolished. What is needed is a reform that goes back to the roots of the founding of the United Nations; that guarantees effective respect for the Charter; and that re-establishes the mechanisms of collective security and the rule of international law.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“It will be beneficial for Iraq, whose people will be able to turn over a new page in their history. It will be beneficial for the United Nations, which has also been a victim of that war. And it will be beneficial for all of our countries, which have had to suffer international economic recession and an increase insecurity that is threatening us all. Secondly, we must address without delay the issue of truly reforming the United Nations and, above all, undertake a far-reaching democratization process.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Cuba believes that we should not, and cannot, relinquish multilateralism; that we should not, and cannot, relinquish the United Nations; and that we cannot, and should not, relinquish the struggle for a world of peace, justice, equality and development for all. Cuba therefore believes that we must achieve three immediate objectives. First and foremost, we must put an end to the occupation of Iraq, hand over real control to the United Nations immediately and begin the recovery process to re-establish Iraq's sovereignty and put in place a 24 legitimate Government decided upon by the Iraqi people. In addition, the scandalous distribution of Iraq's wealth must cease immediately. That will be beneficial for the United States, whose young people are dying in Iraq while waging an unjust and inglorious war.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“According to the language and the spirit of the Charter, they are. But are they really? It is true that a handful of developed countries has benefited from the current situation over the last few decades. But that time is coming to an end. Those countries are also beginning to become victims of the imperial policies of a single super-Power. Should they not take into account, with modesty and common sense, the need to work with the over 130 Third World countries that have been compelled to endure this unjust order and that are ready to attempt to persuade the most powerful country to put aside its arrogance and to comply with its duties as a founder of the United Nations?”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Respect for the principle of the sovereign equality of States, which should be the cornerstone of contemporary international relations, will only be established if the most powerful countries accept in real terms that they must respect the rights of others, even if those other countries lack the military might and the economic power to defend those rights. Are the mightiest and most developed countries ready to respect the rights of others, even if doing so might perhaps slightly restrain the privileges they enjoy? I am afraid that they are not. Are the principles of the non-use or the threat of use force, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and respect for the territorial integrity and independence of States actually in force?”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)