Unity stemming from diversity

Unity stemming from diversity

Speech by Raul Castro, President, Republic of Cuba, Non-Aligned Movement Summit, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, July 15, 2009.

Your Excellency Mr Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt:
Distinguished Heads of State or Government:
Ladies and Gentlemen.
On behalf of my delegation I wish to express our appreciation to the Egyptian government and people for their warm welcome. We are convinced that this 15th Summit Conference will strengthen the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. Cuba shall offer its full support to Egypt as its new chair.
It is an honour for our country to pass the chair of the Movement on to one of its founders. From its early days, the Cuban Revolution found friendship and support in this Arab nation; and this year we shall celebrate together six decades of continuous fraternal relations.
We never forget the noble gesture of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the founding fathers of non-alignment, who visited the then Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government, comrade Fidel Castro Ruz, when both converged in New York in 1960 to attend the 15th Session of the UN
General Assembly and the Cuban leader was accorded a discriminatory and insulting treatment by the US authorities.
The ministerial meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of NAM held in Havana April 27 to 30 this year succeeded in its basic objective of making arrangements for this summit conference. The ministers and heads of delegations assembled there reached consensus on their positions with regard to the most pressing issues affecting humanity and particularly the developing countries.
The Special Declaration on the world economic and financial crisis adopted in that meeting is proof of the transcendence of the debates and of our determination to work in concert towards the solution of international problems. NAM has asserted its firm belief that every country, and not only a few, should participate in the quest for effective and just solutions to the current crisis.
As we said in Havana, the non-aligned countries are the ones most affected by the global economic crisis. Hundreds of millions of people in the world, especially in our countries, are the victims of illiteracy, unemployment, hunger, poverty and curable diseases, which condemn the human beings living in the South of the planet to live shorter and harder lives than those in the industrialised North.
Paradoxically, as it is usually the case, this crisis originated in the rich countries due to the structural unbalance and irrationality of an international economic system based on the blind laws of the market, on selfishness and consumerism and on the squandering of a few at the expense of the suffering of our peoples.
We call for the urgent construction of a new international financial architecture where every country has a real participation, particularly the developing nations. The current crisis cannot be solved with cosmetic measures that actually try to preserve a deeply flawed, unfair, unequal and ineffective economic system. The solution of the global economic crisis demands a re-founding of the international monetary system.
The new currency pattern to be established should not depend on the economic stability, legislation or political decisions of only one state, its power and influence notwithstanding. Many countries, Cuba among them, put forward this position during the recent UN High Level Conference on the impact of the economic and financial crisis on development.
The new system should acknowledge the particular situation of the developing nations and grant them a special and differential treatment. It should also promote a fair and equitable international economic order based on sustainable development whose institutions are subordinate to the United Nations system.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is an honour to introduce Cuba’s report on the activities of NAM in the past three years. The extensive and detailed paper will be circulated to the delegations. The most important conclusion we have drawn from this period chairing the Movement is that unity and solidarity among the member countries are indispensable requirements to enhance the impact of our actions.
The strength of NAM lies in its capacity to reach consensus as a result of open discussions. Every member has had the opportunity to be involved in the design and defence of our agreements and lines of action. Success lies in the intensification of the unity stemming from the diversity characterising our Movement.
In 1961, we were 25 countries in the NAM, and Cuba was the only Latin American state. Today, we have 118 member states which make up the majority of the international community. But we have not only grown in number, as history has also shown the justice of our aspirations and goals. Our demands can no longer be ignored, nor can any decision be adopted on the main problems affecting mankind without the active participation of NAM.
The non-aligned countries are facing numerous and grave challenges. Never before was inequality as prevalent in the world, nor were inequities as deep; but as challenges have grown so have our Movement’s resilience and strength.
We have confronted threats and aggressions and condemned unfair treatment in international trade and finances, and we have urged our full involvement in the main world governmental forums. A decisive part of Cuba’s term at the head of NAM was concurrent with one of the most aggressive and hegemonic governments ever in the United States, and a violator of international law.
The preservation of international peace and security should remain a basic priority of the Movement. Meanwhile, the total removal of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction are still urgent but pending goals.
We are still far from reaching our objectives in that area; therefore, we should continue working until their realisation.
Support for the just Palestinian cause and those of other occupied Arab peoples has been and will continue to be at the centre of NAM’s actions.
We have not hesitated in condemning the aggressions and crimes of the occupying power, Israel, and we shall not rest until the fulfilment of the demands of our Palestinian and Arab brothers. There is no other way but dialogue and negotiation to attain a just and lasting peace in the entire Middle East region; and this cannot avoid the foundation of an independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital. On the other hand, NAM is determined to continue to support one of its members, the fraternal people of the Republic of Honduras, in its struggle against the brutal coup d’état that ousted the constitutional government of that country. It is also NAM’s duty to urge respect for the UN General Assembly’s agreement to return President Jose Manuel Zelaya to his position without humiliating preconditions, and to continue denouncing the repression and murdering of our Honduran brothers and sisters.
NAM has become more active in UNESCO, but there is potential to continue strengthening and consolidating its work in this agency where the efforts of the NAM member countries are crucial to turn into a reality such indispensable objectives as education for all and respect for cultural diversity; the preservation of humanity’s cultural heritage and the end of brain drain from our South nations; and, the shrinking of the enormous gap between the rich and poor countries in the areas of information and communication.
The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries is an indispensable actor in the Human Rights Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. We should be prepared for the institutional review of the Human Rights Council. Our objective should be to preserve cooperation, respect and dialogue in order to promote and protect human rights for all. We cannot allow the Council to return to the practices that led to the discredit of the late Human Rights Commission.
Of special significance is the progress achieved in the coordination of our actions in the World Health Organisation and the International Labor Organization as demanded by the relevance of the issues discussed there to the developing countries. The annual meetings held by our Health and Labour ministers and the decisions adopted therein have given a necessary impetus to the defence of the interests of the South nations in these international organizations.
For example, we have pressing goals to reach at the WHO such as curbing the death toll of 10 million children every year from preventable diseases; reversing the 40-year difference between life expectancy in the richest and poorest countries; expanding the training of healthcare personnel in the developing nations; and, demanding greater attention to diseases affecting our peoples.
On behalf of the Cuban government and people allow me to reiterate our appreciation to all of you for the support provided through these three years. You can be certain that our commitment to the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries will remain unchanged. I reaffirm our most sincere friendship and recognition to every one of you with whom we have shared in the trenches fighting colonialism, apartheid, interventionism, arms build-up, economic exploitation, diseases and illiteracy, and who have always given our people solidarity in the struggle to safeguard their sovereignty and independence, and to overcome the illegal obstacles unilaterally imposed to jeopardise their right to development.
Now, all that is left for me to do, – and I feel honoured to do it—is to submit to this plenary session the election by acclamation of the new Chairman of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, his Excellency Mr Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
I assume that you all agree. I offer my congratulations to the new Chairman and our best wishes for success.
Thank you, very much.