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• 03 / 04 / 2009

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In her speech at the High Level Segment of the 10th UN Human Rights Council (HRC) session, the minister criticized the economic siege the United States has maintained against Cuba for almost five decades.

She talked of the case of Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino and Fernando Gonzalez, unfairly imprisoned for over 10 years for preventing terrorist activities against Cuba.

The official stated that her country is currently carrying out its last mandate as President of the Non-Aligned Movement at the HRC level, soon to be led by Egypt.

By analyzing advances within the UN mechanism, Reus praised the work by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in which 64 delegations have already been reviewed.

The UPR is in charge of assessing human rights records in an objective and respectful way.

The island's justice minister warned about selective and discriminatory practices that still hover over the Council, although she termed positive the NAM balance and triumph, and the end of the institutional construction process.

The Cuban delegation head also applauded the HRC response capacity to face international problems, as the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip and its continuous violations of Palestinian human rights.

(PL)