US sanctions must be stopped as they reshape life in Cuba: UN rapporteur

The ongoing US actions are ‘suffocating the societal cloth of Cuban society’, according to the expert.

The United States indispensable assistance unilateral sanctions imposed connected Cuba arsenic they are “causing important effects crossed each aspects of life” much than six decades aft they were imposed during the aboriginal portion of Fidel Castro’s leadership, according to a elder United Nations expert.

The “extensive authorities of economic, commercialized and fiscal restrictions” against the land federation marks the longest-running unilateral sanctions argumentation successful US history, said Alena Douhan, peculiar rapporteur connected the antagonistic interaction of unilateral coercive measures connected quality rights.

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Only the US Congress tin assistance the Cold War-era embargo connected communist-run Cuba, whose authorities has maintained that the state “will not surrender” to Washington’s “policy of corporate punishment”.

“As a result, generations of Cubans person lived nether unilateral coercive measures, which has shaped the country’s economical and societal landscape,” Douhan said successful a connection released connected Friday.

The UN authoritative cited reports that Washington’s imposed measures person progressively tightened since 2018, with further sanctions imposed connected the already existing ones and a important intensification successful 2021 pursuing Cuba’s re-designation arsenic a alleged “state sponsor of terrorism”.

Other countries and planetary companies besides over-comply with the embargoes successful an effort to steer wide of being targeted with secondary sanctions, which Douhan said affects the authorities and the people’s quality for semipermanent planning, “suffocating the societal cloth of Cuban society”.

US governments person for decades ignored planetary calls to region the sanctions connected Cuba, including the overwhelming UN General Assembly vote astatine the extremity of October that showed planetary enactment for an extremity to the embargo for a 33rd year.

UN Special Rapporteur connected quality rights Alena Douhan speaks during a media league successful Havana, Cuba, connected November 21, 2025 [Norlys Perez/Reuters]

According to the UN rapporteur, determination are shortages of food, medicine, electricity, water, indispensable machinery and spare parts successful Cuba, portion a increasing emigration of skilled workers, including aesculapian staff, engineers and teachers, is further straining the country.

The accumulative effect has “severe consequences for the enjoyment of quality rights, including the rights to life, food, wellness and development”, Douhan said.

Cuba has suffered a series of energy blackouts, grid collapses that person rocked the land of 10 cardinal implicit the past year.

Even erstwhile the US issues precise constricted licences and exemptions, the UN adept said investors stay wary of committing to semipermanent projects since determination could beryllium a argumentation displacement successful Washington.

“I impulse each states to adhere to planetary instrumentality principles and norms and guarantee that humanitarian concerns are afloat respected, grounded successful principles of communal respect, solidarity, practice and multilateralism,” she said.

Douhan volition contiguous a thorough study to the UN Human Rights Council connected the effect of the US sanctions successful September 2026, pursuing meetings with authorities officials, planetary agencies, religion representatives, members of academia, aesculapian unit and the backstage sector.