Cuba warns about the use of the concept "responsibility to protect"

 HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 27 (ACN) While speaking at the plenary session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), Cuba warned about the danger of the selective use of the concept of "Responsibility to Protect" (RtoP) for political purposes.

Gerardo Peñalver Portal, Cuba’s permanent representative to the UN, stressed the need to resolve the differences in the interpretation of the concept, to guarantee its universal recognition and acceptance, and to legitimize the steps designed for its execution.

The debate took place during the analysis of RtoP and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

The Cuban Ambassador said that it is inappropriate to talk about strengthening RtoP implementation without a consensus on its implications and that it was a mistake to speak of this term as a principle, since it is neither a tenet of, nor is it enshrined in, International Law.

He also remarked that every international effort to prevent the said acts should help reinforce aims and principles of the United Nations Charter and International Law such as sovereign equality, territorial integrity, and self-determination.

“Cuba has always shared the goal of fighting these crimes, which is why it also believes it essential to recognize the pre-eminence of the principles of voluntariness, prior request and consent of States in the context of the so-called RtoP,” he concluded.