Cuba slams US, EU over proposed UN human rights council

Cuba has said that the US and the European Union had joined forces to weaken the UN by opposing a draft resolution for a new Human Rights Council.

Cuba has said that the United States and the European Union had again joined forces to weaken the United Nations by opposing a draft resolution for a new Human Rights Council.

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"We are witnessing a new blow to multilateralism and the United Nations," the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement, a day after UN Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton rejected the proposed council.

"Our country will not be a part of the silent political chicanery in the making by Washington and its chief Western allies against the interests" of the developing world, the statement added.

UN General Assembly president Jan Eliasson crafted the draft resolution for a new 47-member Human Rights Council to replace the current and largely discredited UN Human Rights Commission, which among its 53 member states includes notorious human rights abusers such as Cuba.

Bolton, who prefers a smaller council, called for a renegotiation of the text to correct what he deemed were "its many deficiencies."

Through their delaying tactic, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said, the United States "are after a council they can easily 'steer' by excluding those who, like Cuba, call things by their name and, above everything else, defend the principles and dignity of all people."

To get its way, the statement added, "Washington once again didn't care to place its allies and accomplices in the European Union in position of ridicule by having them fall in line with and blindly imitate a superpower."

"Multilateralism can only work if its grounded in respect for the sovereign equality of each state," the Cuban Foreign Ministry said.

"A United Nations that would let a superpower have its way and carry out its hegemonistic appetites and selfish interests would be unviable," it added.