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Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka of Sri Lanka speaking at the consideration of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report of Cuba:
Mr. Vice President,
Cuba participated in the UPR process on a very important landmark anniversary in its history: 50 years after the victory of the Cuban revolution. Cuba’s participation in the UPR has been a model of dynamism and active engagement. Here, Sri Lanka would like to salute the role played by Ambassador Juan Antonio Fernandez Palacios, who has been a militant combatant and a field commander in the battle of ideas in the Human Rights Council.
He has combine maturity, sagacity with militancy and fought against any and every attempt to use Human Rights selectively and hypocritically as an instrument. He has fought to make sure that the Human Rights Council is a level-playing field for everyone and that Human Rights are a patrimony of us all. Mr. President, the Council has full faith in the abilities of his worthy successor, but dare I say that we will be diminished by his absence from Geneva, next month.
Mr. President, Cuba has discharged its responsibilities under conditions of extreme external hostility, pressure and siege. This long-standing and unreasonable siege has not prevented Cuba from being a model of generosity and altruism. Cuba has not only been a model of the practice of social and collective rights within its territory, it has also been the enabler of the enjoyment of such rights throughout the developing countries. May I say that Cuba’s contribution is not limited to collective rights, because Mr. President, imagine the exercise of the rights of the individual when one who did not have sight, has been given sight through Cuba’s operation Milagro, and one who was illiterate has learned to read through the program of Yes I Can – the Literacy Program.
Therefore, Sri Lanka salutes Cuba’s Human Rights contribution and performance and strongly endorses the adoption of its UPR report.
Thank you.
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