Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero once again asked Russia, exposing the UN Human Rights Council, for the “immediate cessation of the use of force” in Ukraine, condemning “the invasion” of that country as well as “the military operations in its territory”, and claimed the path of “diplomacy” to resolve conflicts.
“The world does not support more suffering nor should it tolerate more deaths; peace is urgent”, Cafiero raised when exposing the Argentine position in the framework of a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council that took place this Monday in the city of Geneva.
In this context, he argued that “the dialogue must begin now” and, after arguing that “preventive wars are reprehensible because they are not lawful,” he stressed that, “to discuss is diplomacy”.
“Argentina reiterates to the Russian Federation that it immediately cease the use of force and condemns the invasion of Ukraine as well as the military operations on its territory,” Cafiero expressed when representing Argentina at the 49th session of the United Nations organization based in Geneva, which coincided with the beginning of a dialogue between Ukrainian and Russian representatives on the border between Belarus and Ukraine.
“In the midst of the anguish caused by the conflict in the heart of Europe, I wanted to begin by transmitting this message from the Argentine people, who, due to their own suffering, embrace the most absolute of human rights: the right to life,” he said at the beginning of his speech. speech.
In another section of the message, the chancellor repudiated the irruption in Ukrainian territory of the troops sent by the Kremlin by insisting that “it is not legitimate to resort to the use of force and violate the territorial integrity of another State as a way of resolving a conflict.”
Cafiero read a document of more than thirty paragraphs from the Chamber of the Council to convey Argentina’s position regarding the war in Ukraine; in parallel He reviewed the country’s tradition in terms of human rights and its option for multilateralism as the guiding principle of international relations.
“Multilateralism is for Argentina its natural environment of diplomatic exercise. We reiterate our commitment to negotiation and dialogue as a form of international coexistence, and we are convinced that multilateral tools will grow in prestige the more effective they are in resolving the challenges and crisis of humanity,” he stressed.
Also, he argued that The Argentine State endorsed the words of Pope Francis on the conflict, in the sense of “saving the world from the madness and horrors of war”.
In another paragraph of his speech, referred to some of the points of the controversy between Russia and NATO by emphasizing that “the international community has no right to condemn the concern of any State about its security” nor “possible complaints for the alleged non-compliance with pre-existing agreements”.
What’s more, recalled that Argentina has a portion of its territory usurped by the United Kingdomreferring to the Malvinas Islands and the surrounding maritime space, and then stated that since the recovery of democracy the country “built a state policy based on the demand for dialogue within the framework of United Nations resolutions.”
After the reference to the British usurpation in Malvinas, he affirmed that “Argentina not only adhered and enthusiastically adheres to the principle of territorial integrity” given that, “as a country of Latin America and the Caribbean, it knows what the mutilation of territories and intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.
The mention at the beginning of territorial integrity was another key in the official declarations on the war in Ukraine, a proposal that was made by the Foreign Ministry – for example, the Secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona -, as well as by Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who yesterday issued a thread of tweets with that argument.
In his speech before the UN Human Rights Council, Cafiero stressed that we live in a “world of uncertainties” due to the return of open war between nations and highlighted as a contrast that “South America is characterized by enormous capital”, since which is – he defined – a “zone of peace, of lasting peace”.
Then highlighted the Argentine presence in international forums and recalled that the country exercises ownership of the UN Human Rights Council, through the diplomat Federico Villegas, who presided over the session this Monday, and who also heads the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) with President Alberto Fernández in charge of the pro-tempore presidency of the bloc.
In terms of human rights, The minister spoke about Argentine history and focused on the “last experience of state terrorism”, with “navy task forces” that “they tortured the prisoners before throwing them alive from military planes”, to conclude that Argentina “learned to be a humanist with blood”.
“We are enormously satisfied to have achieved a democracy that is undoubtedly perfectible, but stable. In my country we have memory. There it is, to remind us of the dark past of the dictatorship, the building of the Navy Mechanics School. We want that site to be a cultural heritage of Humanity,” he said.
What’s more, Cafiero stated that Argentina “supports the work” of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, with whom President Alberto Fernández and the foreign minister exchanged impressions on Sunday afternoon.
This Monday, Bachelet was present at the session of the Human Rights Council, which was chaired by the Argentine diplomat Villegas, who, when introducing Cafiero, said that it was “an immense pride” to give the floor to the representative of his country.
