UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Toll of the Embargo

Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on Human Rights, confirmed U.S. sanctions deepen the island’s economic crisis and violate international law. Douhan warned that these measures have “shaped the economic and social landscape of the country”, undermining the fundamental rights to life, health, food, and development for millions of Cubans.

TRANSCRIPT

“Cuba has been under U.S. sanctions since 1962, which is the longest period in which any country has been subjected to unilateral coercive measures in history,” said Alena Douhan, UN Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on Human Rights.

“As I have reflected in my report, the impact of unilateral sanctions against Cuba is severely affecting the energy sector,” explained the Special Rapporteur. “There is, on one hand, an insufficiency of fuel in the country, and due to that, electric plant stations are not fully effective. That is why there are blackouts every day across the country. If there is no electricity, water pump stations cannot function.”

“Food security in the country is reportedly severely impacted by a lack of fuel and by limited possibilities to import food, seeds, fertilizers, livestock vaccines, equipment, and spare parts needed for food production, processing, conservation, and delivery,” Douhan noted.

“Access to health is also reported to be severely affected,” added Alena. “There is a prohibition on procuring goods with more than 10 percent U.S. components, as well as expanding purchases of foreign companies by U.S. persons. All of this has resulted in widespread uncertainty and inaccessibility of 69 percent of medicines for Cubans, including medication for cancer, heart disease, and many other conditions. Hospitals and clinics are often compelled to reinstall entire machinery, resulting in unforeseen and additional expenditures.”

“In schools and universities, fifty percent of computers are out of service,” said Douhan. “New hardware and software is not available in many areas due to the ten-percent rule or blocked access to more than three hundred online platforms and products, including educational materials, training courses, open information repositories, virtual libraries, cloud services, mapping applications, and coding tools.”

“The concerning economic situation has been exacerbated by the country’s redesignation as a state sponsor of terrorism, with reportedly two hundred foreign banks and financial institutions terminating relationships with Cuba since 2021,” the UN expert stated.

“Measures taken by the United States cannot be qualified as valid retorsions; therefore, there is a breach of international law,” said the Special Rapporteur. 

“Unilateral sanctions against Cuba do not conform to a broad number of international legal norms. The refusal of banks to carry out transactions, and of transportation companies to guarantee deliveries, has resulted in documented increases in mortality, deterioration of health conditions, lower food production, and violations of the rights to food and health. It has also eroded people’s quality of life, violating the right to live in dignity without pain, and the right to life in general.”

“I call on the United States to lift or suspend all unilateral coercive measures applied to Cuba and Cuban companies,” Douhan concluded.