A/HRC/11/22* promotion and protection of the right to education, which have brought positive results for all Cuban citizens in spite of the obstacles faced by the country. 72. India has close, friendly and historic ties with Cuba, a fellow member of the NonAligned Movement. Cuba has constantly contributed to the human rights debate with its characteristic energy and intensity. India commended Cuba for its open, cooperative and constructive participation in the UPR mechanism and welcomed the fact that Cuba has signed the ICCPR and the ICESCR. India congratulated Cuba for its impressive achievements in the education and the health sectors, ensuring nearly universal school enrolment and very high university enrolment rates. Cuba’s guaranteed access to highquality, free health services through a State–funded, intensively staffed and extensively spread national health system, is a laudable achievement. India recommended that Cuba share its experiences and good practices with regard to the right to health, in particular maternal and child care programs and HIV/AIDS control programs, and, in view of the growing aging population, that it continue and consolidate its programs for the benefit of the aged and the elderly. 73. Sri Lanka thanked Cuba for standing in the vanguard of the struggle for political and social rights and for its contribution to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the struggles to restore sight to poor people in Latin America and rehabilitate human lives after the tsunami in Sri Lanka or earthquakes in Pakistan. Cuba has been generous, despite having suffered from a cruel blockade for over 50 years. Cuba provided answers to many problems that the Council has been wrestling with. Sri Lanka recommended that Cuba share its experiences, in all the international languages, particularly English language, of this ability to fight ethically and morally. It urged Cuba to share the experiences of, in particular, its international volunteers, whether armed fighters or doctors, and tell through multiple media, whether the internet or illustrated stories, of the experiences, values and the ethics of the Cuban struggle. Sri Lanka concluded by saying “Hasta la Victoria Siempre !” (Ever onward to victory!). 74. Brazil noted the balanced analysis in the Cuban national report of the achievements made, particularly in the area of economic, civil and social rights, and of the challenges still facing that developing country and aggravated by an economic blockade incompatible with human rights. Cuba’s accession to ICCPR and ICESCR is an important victory for Cuba and an example to be followed by others. Brazil asked what further measures Cuba could take to guarantee the respect of the principle of indivisibility between civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and whether there are specific areas in which Cuba considers it important for international cooperation to be strengthened. Brazil recommended that Cuba consider acceding to the Rome Statute of the ICC and accelerate ratification of the International Human Rights Covenants; maintain efforts to promote the moratorium on the death penalty; and, with regard the human rights voluntary goals, seek cooperation with the United Nations human rights mechanisms, including special procedures and treaty bodies. 75. Ecuador praised Cuba’s sustained efforts to promote social rights, particularly the rights to health and to education, and the significant progress made in the exercise of these rights despite the severe economic constraints resulting from an unjust and unfounded blockade. Ecuador highlighted the effort and political resolve reflected in Cubas’s assignment of resources to its policies in the areas of health and education, thanks to which the country is in the highest ranks of human development indexes. Ecuador also stressed Cubas’s efforts in the area of gender equality and empowerment of women and hoped they would be extended beyond the parliament to other instances and spheres of the decisionmaking machinery. With respect to the right to development, Ecuador stated that Cuba could usefully share with other developing countries its experiences and practices in international cooperation, particularly in the strengthening of capacities, the training of 12 GE.09-16273