Global Policy Forum

As the General Assembly for the eighth consecutive year asserted the need to end the United States-imposed embargo against Cuba, the representative of Cuba announced this morning that his country was filing a $100 billion lawsuit against the United States Government to recover the enormous damages caused to the Cuban people by the 40-year blockade.

By a recorded vote of 155 in favour to 2 against (United States, Israel), with 8 abstentions (Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia,Georgia, Latvia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Senegal and Uzbekistan), the Assembly adopted a resolution on the need to end the embargo against Cuba, by which it again urges all States that applied laws and measures of an extraterritorial nature that affected the sovereignty of States and freedom of trade and navigation to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible.

Adopted as resolution 54/21, the text further reiterates the Assembly's call for States to refrain from promulgating and applying such laws and measures, in conformity with their obligations under the Charter and international law. (For details of the vote, see Annex.)

Introducing the text, the representative of Cuba said that despite seven previous resolutions in the same vein, the United States continued to engage in pressures and manoeuvres intended to thwart the will of the Assembly. He drew particular attention to the Helms-Barton Act, and its extraterritorial provisions. The United States' objective since 1959 had been to destroy Cuba. That was pure and simple genocide. For four decades, the blockade had caused illnesses, death, pain and suffering to millions of Cubans. The guilty parties should be punished in compliance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Speaking in explanation of its negative vote, the representative of the United States said the embargo was strictly a matter of bilateral trade policy and not an appropriate matter for the Assembly. It was one element in a policy of promoting democracy in Cuba. While maintaining that embargo, the United States Administration had moved to dramatically expand people-to-people contacts with the Cuban population, increase remittances, and allow the sale of food and agricultural inputs to private entities. The American people had also been extremely generous in providing humanitarian assistance to Cuba. The focus of the international community should be on the continuing human rights crisis in Cuba. The resolution served only to distract Member States, and might encourage the Cuban authorities to persist in their tragically misguided policies.

The representative of Finland (speaking on behalf of the European Union) said the Union wished to be Cuba's partner in economic integration, but that would depend on the country's progress in protecting human rights and political freedoms. She reaffirmed the Union's strong opposition to the imposition of secondary boycotts and legislation with extraterritorial effects. The United States had made an agreement with the Union not to adopt such extraterritorial measures in future.

Challenging the United States' advocacy for democracy, the representative of Libya said that if that country wanted true democracy, it would not have supported Fulgencio Batista, the former President of Cuba, the previous Iranian regime or President Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire. It continued to support dictatorial regimes because its only concern was its own interests. The United States should first respect international law before asking other States to do so.

Statements were made in the debate and in explanation of vote by the representatives of: Cuba; Mexico; Myanmar; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Libya; Argentina; Viet Nam; Syria; Mali; Zambia; Malaysia; Indonesia; Namibia; Jamaica; United Republic of Tanzania; Venezuela; Russian Federation; Sudan; Iraq; South Africa; Iran; Finland (on behalf of the European Union); United States; Belarus; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Japan; Canada; Republic of Korea; Uruguay; Brazil; China and Norway.

For the Complese Text, See GA/9654

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