Díaz-Canel intervenes in the Social Forum of the Human Rights Council

Havana, Nov 3.- Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, spoke virtually at the Social Forum of the Human Rights Council, held in Geneva.

Due to its importance, we share the speech of the Cuban Head of State published on the Presidency website.

Mr. president:

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak at this Social Forum of the Human Rights Council, an example of a platform in which each year various actors can address, on an equal footing, issues related to human rights.

We also welcome the designation of the Islamic Republic of Iran as President of this session of the Forum, and we wish its representatives success in their leadership and active participation of the greatest possible diversity of actors.

We also raise our voices for the millions of Palestinians who, during 75 years of illegal occupation of their territories, have been victims of the most serious violations of their human rights. The current escalation of the State of Israel has further exacerbated a humanitarian catastrophe of extreme proportions that must stop immediately!

A ceasefire is urgently needed that translates into unequivocal respect for the right to life and an end to the murders of civilians and innocent people.

Mr. president:

As protagonists or witnesses, we are witnessing an unprecedented development in the field of technology and innovation that has modified the very course of life on the planet, has considerably increased economic productivity and efficiency, and has put human beings in conditions to achieve what just a few decades ago sounded like a science fiction story.

It is paradoxical, however, that in the midst of this scientific-technical growth, the development gaps between countries at the center and the periphery of the international system are exponentially worsening, and humanity is increasingly closer to the abyss of disappearance due to indiscriminate action. of man on his own natural conditions of life.

How can we conceive that, in 2023, in a world where technology is supposedly at the service of human development, only 36% of people from low-income countries have received a single dose of vaccination against COVID-191? How do you explain that, according to 2022 data, some 735 million people, 9% of the world's population, suffer from chronic hunger and more than 2.4 billion people suffer from moderate to severe food insecurity, when the world has the ability to produce enough food for all its inhabitants?

There is no doubt that the development paradigms prevailing in today's world cause poverty and exclusion of the majority. Simply put, the irrational patterns of production and consumption of capitalism, under the blind designs and laws of the market, disregard what is most valuable: human life and dignity.

Mr. president:

Since 1959, Cuba has made great efforts to develop its own scientific-technological system and to apply its results based on the well-being of its people and sustainable development.

Cuba has a National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030, aligned with the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, which gives a leading role to innovation and scientific research, with concrete impacts in spheres such as health, education, biotechnology, agriculture, energy, environment and culture.

We have a government management system based on science and innovation that has become an important strength for the preservation of our sovereignty.

The costly and complex investment in scientific research and development processes, which are in themselves challenging for the countries of the South, is accentuated in the case of Cuba by the extremely intensified application of the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States.

To cite just one example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Government prevented the supply of lung ventilators, hindered the acquisition of medicinal oxygen in third countries and did not authorize the purchase of supplies for the development of Cuban vaccine candidates.

Despite this siege and thanks to the fact that we have solid science and health systems, strengthened with the talent of our scientists, Cuba developed three vaccines against COVID-19, which allowed us to immunize more than 90% of the Cuban population and, simultaneously, support other countries in the fight against the pandemic.

We were the first country in the world to vaccinate its pediatric population, from the age of two, with its own vaccines of proven effectiveness.

The Cuban biotechnology industry managed to ensure that 85% of the products used in coronavirus treatment protocols were manufactured in the country, while Cuban researchers developed their own model of lung respirator.

Mr. president:

To ensure that science, technology and innovation contribute to the realization of human rights for all without exclusion, it is imperative to eliminate the gaps that inequality generates in access to these technologies, and create the capacities so that scientific development- technology is in line with commitments regarding sustainable development.

Let us truly put scientific-technical development in function of the right to a healthy, clean and sustainable environment. The transfer of technologies, the creation of capabilities and the provision of new and additional financial resources by developed countries, without conditions, cannot be postponed.

Let us transform the current exclusive and obsolete international financial architecture. We refound the system of economic relations at a global level, so that scientific-technical progress is an integral part of the inalienable right of people to development and does not further increase the already unpayable external debt.

Let us make science, technology and innovation fundamental tools to guarantee the full exercise of human rights, both civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural.

Cuba can and has the will to make him share the experiences accumulated in six decades of political action based on human development, despite the genocidal blockade that accumulates the same time of constantly reinforced coercive actions against the Cuban people.

The Revolution of Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and the historic generation of both, to which the current generations continue, has survived that prolonged economic war with the effort and talent of a people empowered by years of investment in education, science and innovation, with universal and free access for all its citizens, without exclusions.

We will never stop fighting for a better world possible!

Thank you so much. (Text and photo: ACN)