UN Rights Expert Urges US to Lift Sanctions on Cuba

A United Nations human rights expert on Friday urged the United States to lift its decades-long sanctions on Cuba, warning that the measures are harming the island’s entire population and crippling essential sectors such as health care, nutrition and education.

Alena Douhan, the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur, said during her second visit to Cuba — following an earlier trip in 2023 — that conditions have worsened across all sectors as Washington’s restrictions have become more stringent.

“For low-income communities, higher inflation and the scarcity of resources make it very difficult to even get proper nutrition,” she said, calling on the US to end its sanctions and “maximum pressure constraints.”

Her appeal comes weeks after the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly, for the 33rd consecutive year, to condemn the US embargo.

Cuba has been mired in a severe economic and energy crisis since 2020, with its GDP contracting and its population of 10 million facing blackouts, food shortages and soaring prices. Cuban officials blame COVID-19 shutdowns, tightened US sanctions and other factors for the downturn.

Douhan said children are among the hardest hit. Insufficient meals, she noted, have curtailed educational, cultural and developmental activities due to a lack of resources.

She also highlighted critical medicine shortages. “Sixty-nine percent of the medicines necessary for the people in Cuba are not available, which is why we are observing a rising mortality rate,” she said, citing her report.

The US embargo, imposed in 1960 after Fidel Castro’s revolution nationalized American-owned property, has been a persistent point of contention. Relations improved briefly in 2016 when Cuban President Raúl Castro and US President Barack Obama restored diplomatic ties, and Washington abstained for the first time on the UN vote against the embargo.

But the shift was reversed under President Donald Trump, who condemned Cuba’s rights record and reinstated stricter sanctions. The US has voted against the UN resolution every year since 2017. Sanctions were expanded during Trump’s first term, continued under President Joe Biden, and were tightened again after Trump returned to office this year.