Mr. President:

Over the five years elapsed since the IV World Conference on Women important advances can be seen in some regions and their countries in connection with the implementation of some areas of the Platform for Action adopted there. It is also true that in many places women claim that this major document for their progress has been well kept in long forgotten archives.

Women's growing social protagonism and the pressures and demands which have been put on governments by many women organizations during the process of follow-up on Beijing, have allowed to show some progress in the promulgation of laws which acknowledge their political rights, incorporate the principle of equality in family law, and some countries have even criminalized any act of violence against women in any of its various forms.

Also, some governments have created mechanisms: ministries, offices, committees which are exclusively mandated to bring about progress for women. The most relevant aspect, however, is the growing awareness of women and the public in general about the galloping rise and expansion of existing and emerging social ills, of the lack of solution for the most pressing problems that were identified and gave priority to in Beijing. The relation between the worsening of the economic and social situation of women over these five years as well as the general situation in a world dominated by ideology, the principles, the rules and the devastating impact of the neoliberal globalization, has become evident.

Therefore, the world will enter the 21 14 century with 800 million people starving to death while the twenty richest people in the world amass a monumental fortune that totals a trillion dollars. In 1999 the patrimony of the world's three richest people was greater than the Gross National Product of the 49 least developed countries combined.

Today's reality is deeply painful. More than the half of the globe's inhabitants are poor or absolute poor, one billion people are illiterate; there are 250 million working children; 130 million with no access whatsoever to education and 100 million street children. It has been estimated that 11 million children under five die every year because of undernutrition, poverty and preventable or curable diseases.

The period we have to look into is marked by the widening of the economic and technological gap between the countries of the South and the North; the enormous differences between rich and poor both inside and between countries, the irrational and irreversible destruction of nature, and its non-renewable resources, waste, genocidal and economic wars,

Women have seen, in these past five years, how they are excluded from opportunities to gain access to a dignified job, an adequate professional and technical training, health care and the guarantees of social security. Privatization, adjustment policies, financial crisis and the IMF formulas have increased the feminization of poverty and unemployment, the deprivation of work, and the use of women as cheap labor force.

These are the most important issues that concern today women from around the world, often aggravated by the indifference and ineffectiveness of States weakened by the own neoliberal concept, lack of political will, resources, development possibilities. Without public policies which favor the participation of women in a sustainable development with equity there cannot be social advancement.

Mr. President:

In our country, the implementation of the Beijing Agreements was carried out in an environment, mood and situation which favored the achievement of great results in the efforts to reach greater participation of women in the economic, political and social life in order to further continue and advance gender equality.

The National Plan of Action of the Republic of Cuba to follow-up on the Beijing Conference, set into force by the Council of State, is the expression of our Government's political will and recognition of Cuban women's human rights.

I am pleased to inform that it has been successful and continues to be implemented with full responsibility and vigor by every one of the institutions involved.

In these five years, there's begun a discreet though sustained recovery of the national economy in which women have played an essential role as workers, technicians, scientists, leaders, volunteering to help develop their communities, protagonists of the gigantic effort carried out, in an indestructible union of women and men, by all the Cuban people.

The criminal measures to tighten the economic war the United States of America, Earth's mightiest country, declared to us over four decades ago have not been able to crush the will, the determination, the sacrificing spirit of Cuban women and men; have not been able to break the decision to preserve our social achievements and pursue a path toward development with social justice and equality; have failed to prevent us from continue to forging our dreams.

In Cuba, truth and justice have come true!!

Mr. President:

During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it became customary within the framework of United Nations and other international events that the speeches delivered were worded in the permanent language of experts and representatives of both poles assuring that all resources devoted to arms production, the development of technology and research for war, would be used in the elimination of hunger, poverty, the creation of schools, hospitals and medical services in order to guarantee the physical and intellectual development of all people in the planet, as well as to do the necessary research to save humanity from dangerous diseases.

These statements raised many hopes among the peoples, the inhabitants of the Earth, among women, who have permanently fought in a dignified manner in order to make their rights come true after the agreements of the 1975 Mexico meeting, convened by the United Nations.

In 1979 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Woman which was immediately signed by Cuba and many countries. It is embarrassing that today some states have not ratified it, and others have not even signed it thus far.

It was thought that this last decade would be that of women advances around the world, of their rights, the full enjoyment of all their human rights; of children rights, of human rights, of globalization of justice, solidarity and Peace.

It was thought that at the threshold of a new millennium, a new century, possibilities of progress for all, of exchange and full implementation of science and technology breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, would come about.

Yet it has not been that way: this millennium's last decade has been characterized by an accelerated growth of poverty, extreme violence, consequence of the unbounded and demential greed of huge economic powers, the merchants of war, of State terrorism which today goes unpunished as a result of a unipolar world.

These and many other abominable, monstrous actions is what this colossal selfishness is capable of!

The indiscriminate arms sales in the conflict zones have created wars which have cost numberless lives, destruction and the displacement of children, women, the elderly, and entire populations who migrate, settling without conditions and creating new problems.

The army of the poor multiplies!

Not to mention the traffickers, kidnappers, the sellers of women, of children destined to prostitution, to slave work, to the sale of their organs!

How much cruelty, how much ignominy, what degree degradation and non-existence of the human consciousness can be reached!

All these consequences of selfishness, of poverty, of violence must end. We have to struggle for development. This status quo must end!!

Mr. President:

Undoubtedly the neoliberal model has failed. But still, the inhabitants of this planet keep on, and will keep on suffering the serious consequences of its profound catastrophic crisis.

Mothers will not let their children starve to death, they will turn into lions to save them!

A new economic and social order which implies, the elimination of all types of discrimination, the progress and welfare for all, the widest respect for sovereignty, independence, self-determination of the peoples and the full realization of the human rights for all, is essential and badly needed!!

The aspiration to attain Equality, Development, and Peace still remains a goal to reach.

Immersed in these supreme efforts is the women's movement which is tireless, vibrant, present, growing, it acts in all continents; it is diverse and plural, it vigorously struggles and is aware of the need of going toward another globalization: one which features solidarity, one which is just, rational, which includes all, women and men, in the enjoyment of a better life, a full life of dignity.

Thank you.