Once again, as the sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly begins its work, the eyes of the world are anxiously turned towards this meeting of the nations in Paris, the city which is the fine flower of western civilization and the cradle of democracy.
28. This expectancy, at once fearful and hopeful, reflects the deep desire of all peoples that ways and means should be found of restoring to mankind, not the false illusion of armed peace, but a real guarantee of lasting peace based on justice, and with it the means of using the astonishing achievements of science for the purposes of civil life.
29. On this occasion the Cuban delegation reaffirms its desire for a peaceful and just settlement of the great problems which divide the world, in conformity with the high principles of the United Nations Charter and with the strictest respect for the freedom and sovereignty of the peoples. We have grounds for constructive optimism in the midst of all our difficulties and problems. Grave crises have already occurred in the course of the short life of this Organization, but the mere fact that the flags of sixty countries are flying in these precincts in itself provides ground for hope.
30. Nevertheless, we should be neither honest nor truthful and we should forfeit our right both to individual and collective survival if we were to ignore the brutal facts of the winter of 1950 and if we tried to forget the river of blood which was shed and is still being shed as a result of the deliberate violation of the 38th parallel, the persistent aggression against the most elementary human rights, and the constant pressure and permanent menace of anti-democratic forces which have threatened with extinction the accumulated gain in regard to material and moral advancement and political progress achieved through many centuries of sacrifice and heroism. We should likewise be failing in our duty as sincere democrats if we failed to denounce the deplorable cases in which totalitarian philosophy and methods hypocritically make a show of serving democracy when in reality they are supporting harsh dictatorships which, with their hundreds of exiles and thousands of political prisoners and with no respect for human rights, are violating the most elementary principles of the international rule of law and maintaining systems of repression that are as appalling as those of the Powers overthrown in the Second World War. There can be no doubt that such regimes lack the moral authority to speak in behalf of the principles defended by the United Nations.
31. It must be recognized that the international situation has deteriorated during recent years and that there is no positive sign of a relaxation of the severe tension which has compelled some of us to embark on a costly process of rearmament and others to convert our peace-time economy to a potential war economy.
32. Faithful to its democratic tradition, Cuba, first of all in the Security Council and later in the fifth session of the General Assembly, gave whole-hearted support to the measures intended to repel totalitarian aggression in Korea and to furnish whatever aid was necessary to the democratic government of that State so that, through the combined efforts of the United Nations, the unification of Korea might be achieved in the manner decided by this international Organization. Our position with regard to the Korean question remains unaltered. We believe that the fate of the United Nations depends on the application of an unflinching policy of resistance to aggression.
33. The Government of Cuba attaches the utmost importance to these annual meetings of the General Assembly. It does so not only because of the questions and specific problems which are considered and decided here, but because of the work which is carried on simultaneously to ensure the increasingly effective attainment of the purposes and principles of the United Nations. We regard this second aspect as fundamental. It is an undoubted fact that the instrument created in San Francisco before the war against the aggressive Powers of the Axis had ended has not proved to be completely suitable for the solution of the grave problems with which we have been confronted during the last five years. It must therefore be so re-adapted in the light of present circumstances and our urgent need for universality and permanence that the aims we set ourselves in signing the basic statute of the United Nations may be fully achieved. In short, the General Assembly must, by interpretation and constructive application of the Charter, make possible the complete attainment of the high purposes of the United Nations. In this connexion I should like, on behalf of my Government, to make a number of statements of principle with regard to certain problems the solution of which is daily becoming increasingly urgent.
34. In the political field, the Assembly has, during its last two sessions, worked with positive results to improve our system of collective security. I refer to the resolution “Essentials of Peace.” [290 (IV)] and, more particularly, to the resolution “Uniting for Peace” [377 (V)]. The latter resolution, recognizing that the system established by the Charter had not operated satisfactorily in consequence of the voting procedure in the Security Council, stated that the fact that the Council was not discharging its responsibilities did not deprive the Assembly of the rights it holds in virtue of the Charter or relieve it of the functions with regard to the maintenance of peace and international security conferred upon it by the Charter.
35. The Government of Cuba, which has fought against the veto privilege ever since the San Francisco Conference, repeatedly pointing out the flagrant contradiction between the United Nations’ purpose of preserving the peace and the methods adopted to achieve that purpose, considers this decision of the Assembly to be of far-reaching significance. It amounts in effect to an express recognition not only of the mistake made when the Charter was signed but also of the need to rectify that mistake by entrusting to the General Assembly, the most representative organ of the United Nations in which decisions are taken by the democratic procedure of the majority vote, the function of and ultimate responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. My Government, I repeat, considers this interpretation and application of the Charter as one of the General Assembly’s most positive achievements and as a matter of the greatest historical significance. There can be no question that in more than one respect, as has been shown by the events of recent years, the United Nations requires institutional reorganization to enable it fully and effectively to achieve its primary purposes.
36. Faithful to this principle, my delegation will support any action to strengthen and develop the principles and procedures established in the resolution “Uniting for Peace”, such as the maintenance of the Collective Measures Committee.
37. In the social field, the promotion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms by international action is one of the main objectives of our foreign policy. Cuba considers it to be a basic principle in this connexion that the protection of such rights and freedoms has ceased to be a matter within the exclusive competence of States and is now a subject amenable to collective action and settlement The idea underlying this principle should not give rise to any hesitation if we remember, among other things, the fact that the Charter expressly lays upon the United Nations an obligation to promote universal respect for such rights and freedoms and their effective enjoyment. In fulfilling this duty, the Assembly has taken numerous decisions and initiatives, including those relating to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [resolution 217 A (III)] the last stage in which is represented by the draft international covenant on human rights and measures of implementation which will again be considered during this sixth session.
38. In this matter the delegation of Cuba will maintain the attitude it has adopted at the previous sessions of the General Assembly and in the Organization of American States, where efforts are also being made to secure better international guarantees of human rights. In this connexion I should like to point out that the Fourth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs held at Washington in the spring of this year adopted, on the proposal of my country's delegation, a resolution on “the strengthening and effective exercise of democracy”. Stating that the “solidarity of the American Republics requires the effective exercise of representative democracy, social justice and respect for and observance of the rights and duties of man this resolution of the American Ministers of Foreign Affairs suggests that the Inter-American Conference which is to meet at Caracas in 1953 should consider, by means of conventions, the measures necessary in order that the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the other American principles directed towards preserving and defending democracy in the continent may acquire full effect in all the countries of America.
39. In view of the intimate connexion of the colonial problem with the international protection of human rights, I should like to make a brief statement on that problem and the relevant activities of the United Nations. Actually, one of the main functions of the United Nations is the protection of nations which do not yet enjoy self-government. Cuba has always been identified with the legitimate aspirations of those nations and with all efforts and initiatives designed to secure for them the full enjoyment of the rights and benefits to which they are entitled under the Charter. We have fought and we shall continue to fight for the strict observance of the obligations placed upon the Colonial Powers by the Charter, and for the granting of an increasingly broad right of petition .to the inhabitants of the dependent territories. We have fought and we shall continue to tight against the so-called colonial clause when used by the authorities in the metropolitan territory as an instrument for evading its obligations towards the colony, and we shall insist undeviatingly and unremittingly on everything conducive to the full realization of the principle of the self-determination of peoples.
40. With regard to economic matters, my Government is particularly interested in the items on the agenda of the present session of the General Assembly.
41. We strongly uphold a policy which will raise the workers’ standard of living, both in the less developed countries and in the territories which do not yet enjoy full self-government, as well as in the colonies. We consider it necessary to assist the under-developed nations in obtaining adequate economic means of subsistence such as will enable them to achieve material and spiritual well-being, the aim of such assistance being to increase the purchasing power of the countries concerned in order to help towards greater stabilization of world economy and prevent the produce of their labour from being used as a means of unfair competition in international markets in a manner derogatory to human dignity.
42. The imperative duty of true democracies is to attempt to secure the economic betterment of all human groups, not only on grounds of elementary self-defence, but also in order to counteract the insidious campaigns of those who attempt to lure such groups with the promise of unreal Utopias or who maintain the peoples in a permanent state of servitude for reasons of personal gain. Only by taking the offensive on both the political and economic fronts will the final triumph of democratic ideals be secured.
43. Bearing these facts in mind, the Government of Cuba has made a determined effort to deal with the problems of agrarian reform. We have established special legal arrangements which give the worker the right to occupy permanently the land he cultivates. Being of the opinion that an agricultural reform in accordance with the standards of the age is not one which merely gives the peasant a plot of ground, but one which effects the fundamental change of converting the farm labourer into an efficient producer, my Government has established and operated the Bank of Agricultural and Industrial Development. The primary function of this institution is to organize the provision of easily available, mobile and extensive agrarian credit, such as will reach the branches of production left untouched by private banking. The Bank has established for this purpose the rural rehabilitation loan, which is granted without further guarantees than personal and moral guarantee of the debtor, and is chiefly an instrument of public assistance and a means of achieving the peasant’s spiritual rehabilitation. My Government has also completed the organization of the Agricultural Development Fund, the purpose of which is to settle peasant families on their own land and provide them with enough tools and implements to work the family plot.
44. This rough outline of the land problem and of the economic and social aspects of the ownership and cultivation of the land makes it possible to assess the substantial progress achieved by Cuba in abolishing all traces of economic feudalism and establishing economic and legal instruments devised not only for the benefit of the Cuban people but also with a view to co-operating by this means in maintaining the lofty principles by which the United Nations is actuated.
45. The Government of Cuba also desires to express its opinion on international trade in view of the close relation between the problems connected therewith and the cardinal purpose of the United Nations, which is the maintenance of peace. Not without profound disquietude, my Government has observed the tendency, which has become general among many countries, of maintaining and intensifying import restrictions that impede the free flow of international trade, in spite of the international obligations prohibiting such practices as harmful to the rehabilitation of the world economy. Organizations of such authority as the International Monetary Fund have stated that, notwithstanding the existing difficulties and the uncertainties of the moment, many nations might have abolished a greater number of restrictions on trade in view of the undoubted improvement in their currency reserves and balances of payment. Nevertheless, the predominant trend in commercial policies has been in the opposite direction. In this connexion, the Government of Cuba wishes to recall that, in order effectively to achieve universal economic stability and create adequate conditions for the maintenance of peace, it is absolutely essential for countries to fulfil their obligations to liberalize trade by abolishing restrictions on imports and currency, restrictions which are unnecessary and illegal, and which are at the present time causing markets to close down.
46. This Assembly meets at a dramatic hour in the world’s history, at an hour which I have no hesitation in describing as decisive for the destiny of western civilization. World public opinion is anxiously waiting to see what attitude we shall adopt. There is a universal conscience which beats in time to our work and which imposes upon us a grave responsibility. Our main duty is not to betray that conscience. It has been said that the United Nations is the great workshop of peace. During our discussions we shall hear that word spoken very often in the various official languages of the Organization. In all languages it has the same meaning for men of goodwill. That meaning cannot be delusive or equivocal. We desire peace; but it must not be peace at any price, not a peace which will mean peace fop one part of mankind while some nations perish beneath the aggression of other nations, but a peace based on law, freedom and justice. We have to build that peace with heroic efforts, by dint of great sincerity and self-abnegation, casting aside spurious ambitions and sterile suspicions and rivalries which will necessarily lead to antagonisms between men and nations. It is my wish, in conclusion, that our minds and consciences may be so illumined under the influence of this City of Light, which has welcomed us with such cordiality, that this ideal so cherished by humanity may, in the end, when our discussions are over, be given appropriate expression in doctrine and action.