The ongoing US actions are \u2018suffocating the social fabric of Cuban society\u2019, according to the expert.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The United States must lift unilateral sanctions imposed on Cuba as they are \u201ccausing significant effects across all aspects of life\u201d more than six decades after they were imposed during the early part of Fidel Castro\u2019s leadership, according to a senior United Nations expert.<\/p>\n The \u201cextensive regime of economic, trade and financial restrictions\u201d against the island nation marks the longest-running unilateral sanctions policy in US history, said Alena Douhan, special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Only the US Congress can lift the Cold War-era embargo on communist-run Cuba, whose government has maintained that the country \u201cwill not surrender\u201d to Washington\u2019s \u201cpolicy of collective punishment\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result, generations of Cubans have lived under unilateral coercive measures, which has shaped the country\u2019s economic and social landscape,\u201d Douhan said in a statement released on Friday.<\/p>\n The UN official cited reports that Washington\u2019s imposed measures have progressively tightened since 2018, with further sanctions imposed on the already existing ones and a significant intensification in 2021 following Cuba\u2019s re-designation as a so-called \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n Other countries and international companies also over-comply with the embargoes in an effort to steer clear of being targeted with secondary sanctions, which Douhan said affects the government and the people\u2019s ability for long-term planning, \u201csuffocating the social fabric of Cuban society\u201d.<\/p>\n US governments have for decades ignored international calls to remove the sanctions on Cuba, including the overwhelming UN General Assembly vote at the end of October that showed global support for an end to the embargo for a 33rd year.<\/p>\n According to the UN rapporteur, there are shortages of food, medicine, electricity, water, essential machinery and spare parts in Cuba, while a growing emigration of skilled workers, including medical staff, engineers and teachers, is further straining the country.<\/p>\n The accumulative effect has \u201csevere consequences for the enjoyment of human rights, including the rights to life, food, health and development\u201d, Douhan said.<\/p>\n Cuba has suffered a series of electricity blackouts, grid collapses that have rocked the island of 10 million over the past year.<\/p>\n Even when the US issues very limited licences and exemptions, the UN expert said investors remain wary of committing to long-term projects since there could be a policy shift in Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cI urge all states to adhere to international law principles and norms and ensure that humanitarian concerns are fully respected, grounded in principles of mutual respect, solidarity, cooperation and multilateralism,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Douhan will present a thorough report to the UN Human Rights Council on the effect of the US sanctions in September 2026, following meetings with government officials, international agencies, church representatives, members of academia, medical personnel and the private sector.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ongoing US actions are \u2018suffocating the social fabric of Cuban society\u2019, according to the expert. The United States must lift unilateral sanctions imposed on Cuba as they are \u201ccausing significant effects across all aspects of life\u201d more than six decades after they were imposed during the early part of Fidel Castro\u2019s leadership, according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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