The world needs peace, social justice and health in the face of the crisis

GENEVA— Cuba stated today at the World Health Assembly that the crises currently affecting the world require a system of peace based on social justice and the guarantee of access to health as a fundamental right for all.

Speaking in this Swiss city at the 62nd session of the annual forum, José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, Cuban minister of public health, also emphasized the importance of solidarity and harmony with Mother Nature.

He stressed the right of all human beings to medical attention and the importance of recovering the human condition of societies and peoples, in order to avoid them being reduced to simple consumers or to merchandise, Prensa Latina reports.

Backed by Cuba’s position as current president of the Non-Aligned Movement, Balaguer Cabrera stated that the group considers the present economic and financial situation to be one of the most serious threats to the world.

He expressed his condolences over the loss of human lives as a result of Influenza A (H1N1), and particularly to the sister people of Mexico, one of the hardest hit by this virus.

He recalled that regarding the current world financial crisis, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, has affirmed that in addition to this cyclical situation, our world is also threatened by unemployment, ruin and fabulous losses of assets and wealth.

Balaguer, likewise a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba, underlined that despite all the difficulties his country faces, Cuba ended 2008 with an infant mortality rate of 4.7 per 1,000 live births and a life expectancy rate of 77.97 years.