Cuba, 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. 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. “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.

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

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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.

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.

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.

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. 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.