United Nations Votes to Condemn U.S. Embargo against Cuba for 18th Consecutive Year

For nearly two decades, the majority of the world has voiced its opposition to one of our most problematic foreign policies – the nearly 50 year U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. On October 28, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly condemned it for the eighteenth consecutive year. 187 countries voted in opposition to the embargo, three countries voted in favor (the U.S. itself, Israel and Palau) and two abstained (Micronesia and Marshall Islands). This is the first time that the General Assembly vote has occurred under the administration of President Barack H. Obama and the first year the vote has occurred where the U.S. is the only country in the Western Hemisphere to not to have diplomatic relations with Cuba.

During a two hour debate, representatives ranging from countries such as China to regions such as the Caribbean (CARICOM) voiced strong opposition to the embargo and called it criminal, illegal and immoral. The Group of 77 (the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states in the UN) and the Non-Aligned Movement (an international organization of states not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc) expressed their disagreement. Even traditional U.S. allies, such as the European Union countries, came out unanimously against the policy and were openly critical. The interventions addressed the negative impacts of the unilateral U.S. decision on areas such as public health, banking, port and aerial operations, and cultural and scientific exchange.

The Obama administration has expressed its desire for a new era in the relationship between the U.S. and the Latin America and Caribbean region. At the same time, it maintains that the U.S. economic relationship with Cuba is a bilateral issue. On the contrary, given the majority of the world feels the U.S. embargo is a discriminatory and unilateral trade practice and that Cuba poses no security threat to the United States, the continued embargo is a reminder that the U.S. may not yet be ready to abandon its unproductive, unilateral tendencies and actually listen to its neighbors.

“The role of Cuba in U.S. foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere cannot be underestimated. While the rest of the world has moved on from the Cold War era, the U.S. still perceives the embargo as leverage to change internal politics in Cuba. Yet, after close to five decades, the policy has not achieved its goal of undermining the Castro government and continues to negatively affect the everyday lives of all Cubans, particularly vulnerable communities such as women, children and Afro-descendants.” —Nicole Lee, Esq., Executive Director, TransAfrica Forum

The attitude of Americans towards the embargo also continues to change. According to the Miami Herald, 82 percent of Cuban born exiles favored the embargo in 1992, while a recent Bendixen poll revealed the number has fallen to 47 percent. Similarly, 51 percent of Americans favored keeping the embargo in 1994, while a Gallup poll taken last year revealed only 36 percent favored maintaining the embargo.

The U.S. has taken notable steps towards greater engagement with Cuba in areas such as Cuban-American travel, bilateral talks on direct mail service and migration and telecommunications regulations. According to the Associated Press, a senior diplomat traveled to Cuba last month for unannounced meetings with Cuban officials. They were believed to be the highest-level talks between the two countries in decades.

Nonetheless, a major fallacy in U.S. policy towards Cuba is that conditionality produces results. Direct dialogue with no preconditions about how to support further changes in the U.S.-Cuba relationship would be mutually beneficial to citizens in both countries and help foster cooperation on other regional problems. It would also help pave the way for the embargo to be fully lifted by an act of the U.S. Congress. As legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to end the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba gains more votes, and more support among businesses and human rights groups alike, there is still hope that change is on the horizon.

To support legislation in the House of Representatives calling for an end to the travel ban on Cuba for all Americans, ask your representative to co-sponsor H.R. 874. To read the bill and view current co-sponsors, visit www.thomas.gov.

To access remarks on the vote by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, click here.

For more information on the need to end the embargo, see the following report requested the Secretary-General, in consultation with organs and agencies of the United Nations system, click here.