The statement was made by President Miguel Diaz-Canel in his virtual address to the United Nations high-level meeting to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action, adopted in South Africa.

The Cuban president said that 20 years later, the goals set out in the Durban documents have still not been met.

This meant that hateful and racist messages proliferated on networks and other communication platforms.

He noted what he described as a lack of political will on the part of developed Western countries which “try with demagogic rhetoric” to distract from their historical responsibility in the enthronement and persistence of these scourges. In this regard, the Cuban Head of State underlined the debt of these States towards the peoples subjected to slavery.

Diaz-Canel stressed that the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the conditions of inequality and exclusion of the poor, migrants and Afro-descendants.

The Cuban President will speak on Wednesday at the meeting of heads of state and / or government of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), to be held as part of the high-level segment of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly. .

jg / mem / ool