By Daniesky Acosta
On behalf of Cubans in the UK
Cuban medical and scientific institutions have announced that they will carry out this year a massive vaccination campaign for the entire population against the COVID-19. The association of “Cubans in the UK” aims to make a modest contribution to this national program by raising as much money as possible to buy medical supplies and send them to Cuba.
We are appealing to the generosity and solidarity of the citizens of Great Britain and of any other country in the world to contribute to our goal, which is £ 25,000. Donations can be made online through the JustGiving fundraising platform JustGiving.
We started the project using the British platform, 'Crowdfunder UK' but unfortunately we had to abandon this platform because it stopped accepting donations for our call. Despite the efforts made by the "Crowdfunder UK" administration to solve the problem, we suspect that the main obstacle is the financial and economic sanctions imposed by the United States against Cuba; since the payments processing on the ’Crowdfunder UK’ platform are carried out by the US company ’Stripe’, subject to OFAC regulations.
Although the extraterritorial application of sanctions against Cuba is illegal in the United Kingdom, it is not the first time that our association has been affected by this type of measures. We have also had difficulties using the services of other platforms including, Eventbrite, PayPal, and Gofundme, in previous initiatives.
It is cruel to obstruct humanitarian aid intended to save lives in Cuba or in any other country. The application of collective sanctions violate international humanitarian law.
Recently, several experts at the United Nations have urged the sanctioning countries to “urgently lift, suspend or minimise” this type of coercive measures with the aim that medicines and medical supplies, food, and fuel can reach the affected nations.
On December 10, 2020, Alena Douhan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, called on nation states to take 16 urgent measures to prioritize saving lives in the course of COVID-19 over any political, economic or other interests
Among those measures were the following:
- Humanitarian aid, human resources, materials, equipment, cash and/or any other kind of aid to fight the pandemic will not be subjected to any direct or indirect restriction..
- No national law or regulation of regional international organisations will have extraterritorial application. Therefore, any sanction, including administrative and criminal charges against individuals and companies involved in the delivery of medical products and food to sanctioned states in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights standards, should be lifted or at least suspended.
Despite the difficulties we face, we will continue with this fundraising campaign and will denounce any attempt to obstruct this project. No one will be able to block our willingness to help. Nor will they be able to block our values of humanism and brotherhood.