Cuba Answers Rights Charges: Self-Determination Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit CUBA ANSWERS HUMAN RIGHTS ACCUSATIONS: SELF-DETERMINATION, OCCUPATION AND WAR "The Right to Self-Determination and its Application to Peoples Subjected to Colonial or Foreign Domination or to Foreign Occupation" Remarks by Mercedes de Armas, member of the Cuban delegation to the 57th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights Geneva, March 2001 Mr. Chairman, The right of each State to the full exercise of national sovereignty and of its people to self-determination, without interference or foreign intervention, are the essential pillars of the juridical order enacted in the Charter of the United Nations. Current international law is based on those principles. The historical evolution of this right has been clearly sustained in the struggle of the peoples under colonial occupation and foreign domination. The exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination is a previous condition for the realization of all human rights. Cuba reaffirms its full and steadfast solidarity with the Palestinian people, with its fair struggle for the establishment of its independent and sovereign State, with Jerusalem as the capital, and the proper restitution of all the occupied Arab territories. Cuba also reiterates its absolute support for the unquestionable right of the people of Puerto Rico to exert its right of self-determination upon its territory, including Vieques Island, and for its fair demands for immediate cessation of the military exercises and bombing carried out by the US Army on that small island. The lives of the inhabitants are in serious danger because of the great contamination caused by the use of conventional and non-conventional weapons, including uranium. On the other hand, for Cuba, the restitution to our national territory of the land occupied by the US Navy Installation in Guantanamo, against the will of its people, continues to be a permanent demand. The illegal occupation of part of our territory deeply hurts the independence of our country and constitutes a flagrant violation of the Cuban people's right to self-determination. Mr. Chairman, Today the peoples' struggle for their right to self-determination continues to be valid, not only because there are still seventeen territories -- formally recognized -- under colonial domination, but also because new dangerous and harmful threats affect our peoples, particularly in the developing countries. The threats come from a new force and domination policy, and from theories without any legal or juridical bases but intending to enact an assumed right of "humanitarian intervention," and the attempts of powerful countries to impose foreign development schemes and political organization models on our peoples. That assumed "right" was rejected by the Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in its resolution 1999/2. In the 55th Session of the General Assembly, it was also adopted with wide support, a resolution which reiterates the decision that, when stimulating and promoting the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as the solution of international problems of humanitarian nature, all States must scrupulously observe the principles stated in Rule 2 of the Charter of the United Nations and, in particular, they must respect the sovereign equality of all States and must abstain from threatening or using force against the territorial integrity or the political independence of a State, or any other action against the purposes of the United Nations. The dilemma for the developing countries consists of whether or not to accept a situation where they become -- under various circumstances, excuses or spurious procedures -- an object of intervention by a group of powers that monopolizes the economic and military capacity for doing so. This so-called "humanitarian intervention" constitutes a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of current international law -- in particular, the right of peoples to self-determination. The challenge of preserving peace depends on respect for nations, for their territorial integrity, their diversity and for the evident diversity of political systems. In this context, revitalizing the right of peoples to self-determination represents a singular importance at present. Mr. Chairman, An important part of this agenda item has historically been the consideration, year after year, of the report of the Special Rapporteur on the question of the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of the peoples to self-determination, Mr. Enrique Bernales Ballesteros, who has had the very difficult task of finding and collecting information, analyzing facts and denouncing each new mercenary activity wherever they have occurred. I wish to thank and congratulate the valuable document E/CN.4/2001/19, which contains such report. I also wish to thank the report of the experts' meeting which, after some years of having been requested by this Commission and by the General Assembly of the United Nations, was finally completed last January. As it is well expressed in this a document, mercenary activities are not a thing of the past. On the contrary, they have increased and acquired new and dangerous forms that threaten the current exercise of human rights and the full exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination. Cuba supports the comprehensive research work and pursuit of mercenary activities carried out by the Rapporteur, including the work after his visit to Cuba in 1999. We also support the Rapporteur's statement about the clearly established and ever-increasing relationship between the mercenary activity and terrorism. For almost forty years, Cuba has been a victim of mercenary and terrorist activities, promoted and sponsored from US territory. Therefore, our country firmly rejects the continuation of such practices, which are a violation of international law and of the Charter of the United Nations. Cuba supports, without equivocation, the work and the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and advocates the renewal of his mandate for another three years, which is more pertinent today ever before. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcari-03.31.01-04:43:52-6664